How to Filter an Excel Spreadsheet – Filter the Whole Worksheet

Excel sheets may consist of large or small datasets that can be confusing at times, that’s why we need to make them clear for better understanding. In Excel, we have a feature called Filter that is helpful in organizing data in multiple ways.

Filters can be effectively used to bring down the amount of data that is visible on the sheet. You can reduce the expanded amount of data easily using filters in terms of certain columns, headers, rows, or even the entire document. Apart from this, you can even re-arrange the whole worksheet as per your needs.

Disabling filters will let you have a look at the entire data present on the sheet. So, basically, the question is how to filter an Excel spreadsheet easily. We have come up with easy-to-follow methods that can help you manage the data.

How to Filter an Excel Spreadsheet Data across a Whole Sheet?

For this purpose, you will have to follow the steps given below:

1. Press CTRL+A from your keyboard to select the whole worksheet. On the other hand, if you are using Mac, you have to use “command +A” to select the whole sheet.
2. In the top toolbar, you will see the “Data” option, click on it.
3. Now, click on the “Filter” option given in the top toolbar. Doing this will let you see an arrow at the top of each column.
4. Clicking on the arrow given at the top of each column will display a “Filter” pop-up.

5. Now, you may have to click on the “Number Filters” option which can display a more detailed pop-up.
6. You can choose any setting as per your needs. Here in this example, we will filter the data by greater than 5000.

That way your whole sheet’s data will be filtered, which clearly means that you can see only the part of the data that rules under the applied filters.

To Filter Data:

In another example, filters are applied to an equipment log worksheet that shows only laptops and projectors ready for checkout.

Note: Keep in mind that when you need to filter data correctly, your worksheet must be having a header row that helps in recognizing the name of every column.

Here we have filtered data into multiple columns known by their header cells in row 1: ID#, Type, Equipment Detail, and so on.

1. Click on the Data tab and then choose the Filter Command.
2. You will see a drop-down arrow that appears in the header cell for every column.
3. Click on the drop-down arrow for the column you need to apply filters on. Below you will see in the example that the filter used in column B shows some specific kinds of equipment.
4. In the next step, you will see the Filter menu. From this, you can uncheck the box that appears next to Select All to deselect all the data instantly.
5. Now, check each box given next to the data that you need to filter out and click on the OK button. Here, we have used a laptop and projector that’s why we’ll check these two items to see only this kind of equipment.

That way your data will be filtered and you will see only filtered data temporarily. The values that are not compatible with the applied filtered data will not appear in the present sheet. As we are filtering only laptop and projector, that’s why we’ll see only these two kinds of data.

Other than that you can even try Sort & Filter command to filter the data. This command is present on the Home tab.

How to Filter Data in Excel Spreadsheet for One Column?

Follow the steps given below to filter your data easily:

1. Firstly, click on the related letter at the top by clicking on the column.
2. Click on the “Data” option given on the top toolbar.
3. In the top toolbar, you will see the “Filter” option, click on it and an arrow will appear on the top side of the column.

4. Now, click on the arrow given at the top side of the column and you will see the “Filters” option pop up.
5. From this pop-up, clear on the “Number Filters” option that opens up an even more detailed pop-up.
6. From this detailed pop-up, you need to choose the settings as per your demand and need. Click on the OK button and the procedure of filtering the Excel spreadsheet is done successfully.

One thing you must keep in your mind is that you will see data that is matched with defined parameters based on that column. The data that is not matched with parameters will not be included in that column.