Sharing-Ready Tables: Tidy Data, Totals and Checks
All lessons
- Sharing-Ready Tables: Tidy Data, Totals and ChecksFree
- SUMIFS and COUNTIFS Reports (and QUERY in Sheets)Free
- Lookups: VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP and INDEX/MATCH (plus IMPORTRANGE) Pro
- Text and Dates: Clean Names, Build IDs and Due Dates Pro
- Data Validation Logic: Checking Form Responses with Formulas Pro
- Conditional Formatting for a Shared Inventory Sheet Pro
- A One-Page KPI Dashboard with a Chart Pro
- Team Task Tracker: Status Counts and Overdue Items Pro
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Sharing a sheet without breaking it
- Share (top right) gives people one of three roles: Viewer, Commenter or Editor. Give Editor rights only to people who maintain the data.
- Data > Protect sheets and ranges locks formula columns and lookup tables, so an editor cannot overwrite them by accident.
- View > Freeze > 1 row keeps the header visible while you scroll. A tidy header row is what filters, pivot tables and charts read.
- Data > Create a filter view lets each person filter without changing what everyone else sees. A normal filter changes the view for all users.
- File > Version history shows who changed what and lets you restore an older version. Excel for the web has the same idea under File > Info > Version history.
Tidy table checklist
- One header row with short, unique names.
- One record (order) per row, no empty rows, no subtotals in between.
- Numbers stored as numbers (right-aligned), dates as real dates.
- Totals and checks below or beside the table, never inside it.
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