Excel 2007’s list of new features includes plenty of improvements that won’t exactly wow most of the software-buying world. For example, its support for 6,300% more columns than the previous version comes to mind. The new table feature is among the things that probably aren’t top-of-mind for new 2007 users either, but unlike those 16,300 available columns, this feature is actually one that almost everyone should take for a test run. It’s a fast way to put a block of data into a more readable form that’s also easy to manipulate.

Insert A Table

If your worksheet already includes a range of data set up in rows and columns, creating your first table is almost instantaneous. Just drag your mouse across the range to highlight all the information (drag across the row and column labels, too, if you’ve already entered them), then click the Insert tab’s Table button. The dialog box that appears offers you the chance to change your data selection, but since you’ve already highlighted the range by dragging, this part should be taken care of.

You’ll notice a checkbox labeled My Table Has Headers. Excel uses this feature to automatically handle part of your chart’s setup, and if you highlighted text cells above columns when selecting your range, Excel should check this box itself. If the box is empty, but your highlighted range includes headers, click the box to tell Excel what’s happening. If you create a chart without headers, you can always double-click the “Column 1,” “Column 2,” etc. headers Excel inserts and type in the text you want to appear there.

Headers are nice to have in long tables, because if you click inside a table and start scrolling down, the headers remain visible. If you don’t want to see the headers, hide them by clicking the Table Tools tab and clicking to remove the check mark from Header Row. (Whenever you click inside a table, the Table Tools tab appears above the regular ribbon.) Keep in mind that when you shut off the headers, you’ll lose any filters (which we’ll describe later) you’ve applied.

Note that it’s usually smart to highlight row labels along with column headers. Row labels often serve as names of things such as salespeople in a sales results sheet or product names in an inventory sheet. Highlighting these labels means they stay with the numbers in the row when you sort a column. Plus, highlighting the row labels makes them a sortable column themselves.

Expanding Tables

The table’s size is flexible. To add another empty row at the bottom, click on the last cell in the last row (the bottom-right corner) and press TAB.

To add new data in rows or columns adjacent to the table, type data into an adjacent cell and press ENTER. Excel will add a row or column. You also can drag the handle at the bottom-right corner of the table to bring adjacent cells into the table.

To insert a row or column in the middle of the chart, click the row below where you want the new row or click the column to the right of where you want the new column. Now go to the Home tab’s Cells area and click Insert. Choose the Insert Table Rows or Insert Table Columns option. For an even faster addition, click in the row or cell, right-click, and choose Insert and the relevant option. Delete empty rows and columns by right-clicking a cell in them and choosing Delete and the relevant option.

Sorting Data

One feature built into Excel’s new tables is data sorting. Every column comes with a drop-down arrow you can use to sort a numerical column into ascending or descending order and a text column into alphabetical order.

The drop-down arrows also include filters that let you hide any data that doesn’t meet certain criteria. For numbers, you can pull out only figures above or below the column’s average; those that equal a certain figure; and more. You even can set up custom filters of your choosing. For text, the filters let you sort through entries with criteria such as cells that contain certain characters or begin or end with certain characters.