Excel 2016 Data and List Management

Lesson 3 – Working with Outlines

Excel 2016

A PPLYING AN O UTLINE  D ISCUSSION

Outlining a worksheet makes it easier to understand and analyze information. Outlines divide a worksheet into logical units or levels. Lower levels usually contain the detail data associated with a higher level (such as a row or column of summary data).

You can use outline levels to group similar information together. Then, you can collapse and expand the outline to control the level of detail that appears.

Outlines allow you to see the relationships between detail data and summary data. For example, if a formula in cell A10 totals the numbers in cells A1 through A9, you can use the Outline feature to display a symbol on the left side of the worksheet, showing that the total in row 10 is based on the detail data in rows 1 through 9.

Outlining is a convenient way to display summary data. A complex sheet (such as one that contains monthly sales figures for each region of a company) can be large and difficult to use. You must often scroll through detail data to locate the summary data. When you use an outline, you can hide the detail data in order to display only the desired summaries. In addition, you can print just the summary data.

Applying an outline

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