How to use the Excel 2003 autofilter

Many reports in FBO One produce a lot of data, more than you asked for. One solution would be to create a report template, but that only pays of if you'll use the template regularly. Another way would be to use pivot tables, but that may be a bit complicated for a one time simple selection.

The easiest way to create a one-off selection is using the Autofilter feature of Excel. The steps are:

  • Get the report out of FBO One in Excel
  • Save the file (so it won't be read only any more)
  • Use 'Freeze Panes' to fix the column headers
  • Delete unused columns & set column width
  • Activate & use the Autofilter

Start by downloading a report from the reports menu in FBO One, in this example the contacts report:

autofiltercontactsreport

 

Then, in Excel, save the file

autofilter2003save

 

Then, select cell A2 and click 'Freeze Panes' in the window menu. This will keep the headers in the screen even if you scroll.

autofilter2003freezepanes

 

This is a good time to select unwanted columns and delete them. Selecting columns works best by clicking in the Excel column headers. You can select (and delete) multiple columns at once by using the Shift and/or Ctrl keys. In this phase, just delete the columns you're sure you won't need. For a mailing for example, the AOC data is not relevant. Usually, the 'ID' columns (showning the random looking numbers like the A column above) can be deleted too. They are used by FBO One internally.

Also, set the column width of the columns you're interested in a bit wider, so its more clear. The result should look like the illustration below. (we also rotated the headers so they are readable even for narrow columns.)

autofilter2003columns

 

Now it's time to activate the auto-filter:

autofilter2003on

 

So you can use the power of the Autofilter to find the data you're looking for, like in this example all clients with the word 'Jet' in the name:

autofilter2003jetfilter

 

Of course, using the auto filters, you can filter a lot more, even on multiple columns, depending on what you're looking for and/or how you want to use the data.

 

See also

Contact fields

Order fields

How to create Excel 2003 Pivot Reports