Although a spreadsheet should be easy to read and follow, this should rarely be at the expense of efficiency. Moving beyond structure, formatting also can cause problems. Sorting also will speed the calculation process of many functions significantly. Excel has a rich set of lookup and reference formulas, some of which require that your data be sorted in a logical order. Make sure your data is sorted whenever possible. If you find you are repeating the same data over and over for two or more rows in one of these columns, resist the temptation to use blank cells to indicate repetition. With this in mind, you should set up tables with column headings going across the first row of your table and related data laid out in a continuous manner directly underneath their appropriate headings. It is no coincidence that Excel spreadsheets can comprise 1,048,576 rows (65,536 pre-2007) but only 16,384 columns (256 pre-2007).

In such scenarios, you can use these features to their full potential only when you’ve laid out your data in a very basic table. Time and time again we see spreadsheets that do not follow this simple rule and thus are limited in their ability to take full advantage of some of Excel’s most powerful features, including PivotTables, subtotals, and worksheet formulas. The first three items on the preceding list add up to one thing: you should always try to keep related data in one continuous table.

Having blank columns and rows in tables of data Unnecessarily spreading data over different tables Unnecessarily spreading data over numerous worksheets Unnecessarily spreading data over many different workbooks

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