If you’re looking to import data from the web directly into Microsoft Excel, you’ve come to the right place. Instead of manually copying and pasting data over into Excel, you can connect Excel to the data source. This way, when the data updates, your spreadsheet will automatically reflect the latest changes. This is a much more efficient way of working, as it saves time and allows you to focus on higher value activities.
Let’s say you want to import cookie sales data from a website. First, go to the top tabs in Excel and click on the one called “data”. Then, under “get and transform data”, click on the option to pull data in from the web. Type in the URL of the website where you want to get the data from. Excel will make a connection to the website and open up the navigator, which shows all the different elements on the site that Excel found. Look for a table that contains the data you want to import into Excel. If it’s not in a table, unfortunately, Excel will be unable to retrieve the data.
Once you’ve found the table with all the data you need, you can either load it directly into Microsoft Excel as is, or you can transform the data before you bring it into your spreadsheet. Power Query is a powerful tool that allows you to transform your data before bringing it into Excel. You can run calculations, append data, and make the data look how you want it to look.
One of the great things about pulling data into Excel using this technique is that Excel is now connected to the data. This means that you can refresh the data whenever you like, and your spreadsheet will automatically reflect the latest changes. You can even define how often you want the sheet to refresh.
By using Excel to import data from the web, you can save time and make your work more efficient. Plus, you won’t have to worry about making mistakes when copying and pasting data manually. So, why not give it a try and see how it can simplify your work?
And that’s how easy it is to get external data from the web into Microsoft Excel.