Importing+data+to+excel

Ever wanted to import data to your excel document without having to do all that labor retyping it? Well it is simple really and a good thing to know for if the need arises. toc

First things first we will want to go to our Data ribbon in Microsoft Excel. Once we are here on our Data ribbion we will have to choose where we are importing our data which can be found on the far most left part of the ribbion. You can choose from: flat

=__**A) From Access**__= We haven't learned Access yet, but after we do it should be easy to figure out after looking at B) or C).

=__B) From Web__=

For this feature we will be important a table that already exists on a website. Here are the steps in which you will use: 1) Click on From Web (an Excel browser window will open up inside of Excel)

2) Type in the URL you wish to get the table from (for this example I used [])

3) See those yellow arrows? Those are tables you can choose from. Once you decided on a table you want click on the arrow (it will turn green as you hover over it) A) That arrow should now be a checkmark (showing that you choose this table) and yes you can choose more than one table to import at one go.

4) Click import once you have choosen your table(s)

5) A window should pop up (below) where you would choose where you would like to import your data to

6) Click OK and your table will now be in your excel worksheet!

=**__C) From Text__**=

For this one to work you must already have a text document of some sort. For this example I will be using a Notepad file with fairly simple made up information. (The 2nd and 3rd line have tabs while the first line is seperated by spaces) Inorder to do this you will have to: 1) Click on From Text

2) A popup window will popup letting you search your computer for your text file (in the example it is the Notepad file)

3) After choosing the document another window will pop-up where in most cases you will click next but it gives you the first preview of what your table would look like. If you look at the example (below) you will noticed some things are bunched up, don't worry we will be dealing with that in the next step. Click next.

4) In the current window is where you will be able to change what is a new column in the table in the upper left corner of the window. Since I want data that has spaces between it AND data seperated by tabs to be seperated I would check the box Space to include both things I desired. If you noticed your preview window changed after checking the Space box. It did because what those black bars symbolize are seperators for each column of data. So if I clicked Finish before checking the second box the top left cell would read "Studen Grade Absents" with the other two columns being blank. Now it looks proper though so click Next.

A) Depending on how much information and what that information is you will choose accordingly and might have to change the text document so it formats properly. If you have data seperated by spaces but titles are multiple words one common solution is to change the title to FirstWord_SecondWord so it is one word then removing the underscore after it is imported.

5) This next window (below) is the final window you can utilize before completing your import of data. For this example it's not really needed and could have clicked Finish on the last step.

=**__D) From Other Sources__**=

For the most part this is for advanced users that would not be found in the School of Business. Because of this you'll probaly never need to use this, so I won't go over it.

Now that you have your data imported you might want to format it specialy. If this is the case you might want to check the work of other posters (links provided below). Formatting data to tables: http://info273.wikispaces.com/Excel+-+Data+To+Table Conditional formatting: http://info273.wikispaces.com/Conditional+Formatting+Reference Auto fit the size of the columns: http://info273.wikispaces.com/QUICK+FIT?responseToken=0fd514f125867cd62edc389c597b4f65d Sorting your data: http://info273.wikispaces.com/Sorting+Data

___ Ken Watson Montclair State University INFO-273-06: Introduction to Computers in Business Dr. William Colucci