Excel® 2007 Bible

Chapter 6. Introducing Tables

<feature><title>In This Chapter</title>

• Understanding how a table differs from a normal range

• Working with tables

• Using the Totals Row

• Removing duplicate rows from a table

• Sorting and filtering a table

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One of the most significant new features in Excel 2007 is tables. A table is a rectangular range of data that usually has a row of text headings to describe the contents of each column. Excel, of course, has always supported tables. But the new implementation makes common tasks much easier—and a lot better looking. More importantly, the new table features may help eliminate some common errors.

This chapter is a basic introduction to the new table features. As always, I urge you to just dig in and experiment with the various table-related commands. You may be surprised at what you can accomplish with just a few mouse clicks.

What Is a Table?

A table is simply a rectangular range of structured data. Each row in the table corresponds to a single entity. For example, a row can contain information about a customer, a bank transaction, an employee, a product, and so on. Each column contains a specific piece of information. For example, if each row contains information about an employee, the columns can contain data such as name, employee number, hire date, salary, department, and so on. Tables typically have a header row at the top that describes the information contained in each column.

So far, I’ve said nothing new. Every previous version of Excel ...