Tanya Pemberton - Excel Consultant, Bespoke Trainer & Admin Support

13/05/2026

Accessibility Text:
📊 𝐌𝐲 𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐲:

🏆 𝐌𝐀𝐗𝐈𝐅𝐒 🏆

I’m currently using it to create motivational stats for lifting weights at the gym. 😊

✨ 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬:
MAXIFS returns the largest value that matches one or more conditions.

🧮 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐱:
=MAXIFS(max_range, criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2]…)

Example query -
Return my largest weight lifted for a specific activity and date

=MAXIFS(Weights_lifted_range, Date_range, Date, Activity_range, Activity)

💡 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬:
Find the highest sales amount for a specific region, employee, or product without needing filters or pivot tables.

🙌 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐭:
I didn't know this one existed until I went looking for a way to quickly return the highest value based on certain criteria - such as date, and exercise type. It's exactly what I needed.

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭, 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞.

14/11/2025

✨ Focus Cell ✨
Very helpful new feature in Excel - especially if you work with large spreadsheets!

I shared a post back in June with a video on how to use Conditional Formatting and a bit of code to make Excel highlight your active cell more clearly (since the default highlight is pretty subtle in recent versions).

💡Good news! Excel is always getting updated, and it now includes a built-in "Focus Cell" feature that highlights your active cell very clearly with just one click. This is available in both the Desktop and Online versions for Microsoft 365 users.

👉 To turn it on (or off), go to the "View" tab at the top, then select "Focus Cell".

This really will help to relieve the strain on your eyes (and your brain) when you work with large spreadsheets!

Let me know how you get on :)

21/10/2025

✨𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥 𝐓𝐢𝐩: 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐧 (or other range)

Just recently, I was helping someone build a 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫 sheet where you can only pick one activity per time slot.

I found a formula you can add to the 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥 which stops you from entering data in more than one cell in a selected range (which means you 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐬𝐞 “𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐬” 𝐨𝐫 𝐕𝐁𝐀 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞 to create this effect).

I also added a restriction so you can only enter “y” in each cell.
Here’s the formula:

=AND(OR(TRIM(B2)="", LOWER(TRIM(B2))="y"), COUNTIF(B$2:$B$20,"")

06/09/2025

😁

Here is a bar graph of how much door I’ve painted

26/06/2025

🔍 Excel Tip: Highlight the Whole Row You're Working On!

Tired of losing track of where you are in your spreadsheet? You can make the entire row light up when you click or edit a cell — this is like placing a highlighter or ruler across your data.
Super helpful for fast scanning and fewer mistakes! ✅

🎥 How to do it:
Click the link below to watch a 3 minute tutorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJiygLKrwBc

Leave a comment if you found this helpful, or need some help to make this work.

In this Microsoft Excel training tutorial, discover how to highlight the active row in your Excel spreadsheet.🌍 Get unlimited training with Simon Sez IT’s 2...

08/12/2024

I just received the perfect Secret Santa gift! Top work whoever got me this AND filled it with chocolate. ^_^ x

04/12/2024

Poet Brian Bilston - proving that Love and Excel are not mutually exclusive.

Today’s poem is called ‘Love Excels’.