When we’re working with large data sets, we need to drill down into the data to analyze specific cuts to truly understand what the data is trying to tell us. Slicers are a powerful Excel tool that allow us to quickly examine a deeper subset of data by adding filter buttons to our worksheet.
Let’s say we have overarching sales data and want to zoom in to examine sales by specific region. This is the perfect situation for a slicer! To add our slicer, first we need to make sure our data is formatted as an Excel table. To do this, select any cell within the data set and press CTRL T. Once the data has been formatted as a table, select any cell within the data again, and this time press ALT N S F to activate the Slicers command on the Insert tab. The Insert Slicers dialogue box will open - now all we have to do is select which field we’d like to drill down by, hit OK, select the button for which region we'd like to look at, and there we have our data slice.
That’s it! It’s as easy as pie 🥧
