ITC 3001 Unit IV Journal

Reflect on any Excel data manipulation techniques you may have done in the past, and explain how you think Excel 2016 will help you better manipulate data. Give a specific example of one function that you think will improve your data manipulation.

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to create several documents at work that included graphs and tables. As a supervisor in charge of the department’s Electronic Control Devices, also known by their brand name, TASER, I was required to maintain documents displaying who had which device(s). The same document also had the serial number, firmware version, and the operator’s last training date.

Serial numbers are important for warranty and repair tracking. In addition, each device has its own memory tracking usage that the operator cannot access or edit. Whenever there was a complaint involving an alleged TASER activation, I would be able to access the unit’s memory by the listed serial number. I was then able to confirm if the device had or had not been used. An important feature within Excel that I used often would be to check the entire document’s list of serial number against activation lists via the FIND command. Within seconds of entering the activated list of numbers against the list of in-service devices, Excel would return matches.

Another feature I used most-often was the auto-populate feature. Because I maintained over 80 Electronic Control Devices, the vast majority have the same warranty dates and firmware versions. The auto-population feature would eliminate the need for me to type the same information over and over again when only a handful of the devices had differing values. These two features, while simple and not overly demanding, saved me countless hours of typing the same information in several cells all over the form(s).