What is an Excel table? Before answering that I will define the word tabular. If data is in a tabular format, it is presented in rows and columns. For example, suppose you had an address book of people. Each row contained the data for one person and each column had a particular type of information. The first column might be First Name, and the second column might be Last Name, and so on. We are studying Excel tables because once you get comfortable with them they give you a lot of productivity gains.

Tables were introduced to Excel in 2007.

Here is an excellent introduction YouTube video from MyOnlineTrainingHub that discusses Excel tables. The video is called Introduction to Excel Tables and is about 13 minutes long.

I made up a table in Excel that is similar to the one in the video. Below is a screenshot of the table. I first entered the data and created a formula to calculate the age of the employee based on today’s date, Oct 26, 2022. I used the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T to create the table. I specified that it did in fact have headers. I also gave the table a name: tblEmployees. By the way, names must be unique in the workbook (file) and they cannot contain any spaces. Go to the Formulas tab and click on the Names Manager to see all of the names in the workbook. Below is what I now have.

Aside: If we have a table anywhere in our workbook, (Excel file) then we cannot use custom views at all. Since tables are so useful, you may not use custom views very much.

If you are working with a table, you do not need to freeze the top row (with freeze panes under the View menu) because it will automatically be visible when you scroll down. By the way, Freeze Panes is not compatible with Page Layout view. Freeze Panes is for adjusting what you see on the screen, not what is printed. For example, freezing the top 3 rows does not print the top three rows on each page. For that you need to go to the Page Layout menu, Page Setup and the last tab called Sheet, and the Rows to repeat at top setting.

Is it a Table?

You have data in Excel that is in row and column format, but how do you know if it is a table? First, put your cursor inside the range. If you see the Table Design tab (menu), then it is a table. Also, in the botton right corner, you will see a small triangle if it in fact is a table.

Below is a screenshot of the Table Design tab (menu). Notice below that I have given my table a name in the Table Name box: tblSales.

Convert Back to Range

You can convert it back to a range by clicking Convert to Rnge in the Tools section (the second section from the left) in the Table Design tab.

Filter

Excel tables allow you to easily filter your data. You can also filter your data if you have not converted your data from a range to a table. You can learn more about filters from Leila G at YouTube with the video called Excel Filter Basics (for quick data analysis).

Sort

Here is a YouTube video by Leila called Excel Sort Data (by Value, Color, Icon, Own List) & How to Unsort.