Excel 365: Clean & Transform Text

Course description

This course introduces essential text functions in Excel 365 that allow users to manipulate and clean up text-based data effectively. The session begins by explaining how text functions differ from numerical functions, highlighting their value in situations where data is imported, inconsistently formatted, or needs structural adjustments. It explores three main functions for combining text: CONCATENATE, CONCAT, and TEXTJOIN. CONCATENATE requires individual arguments, whereas CONCAT simplifies the process by allowing ranges. TEXTJOIN adds the ability to insert a consistent delimiter, such as a dash or comma, while combining text values. These functions are demonstrated using examples that show how to merge product data and create catalog listings efficiently. The course also features Excel’s Text to Columns tool, which enables splitting a single column of data into multiple columns using a defined delimiter. This is especially useful when working with pasted content from CSV or text files that need restructuring. Through detailed demonstrations, the course shows how to apply delimiters, define formatting, and manage column import settings. These tools help organize data more effectively, preparing it for sorting, filtering, and analysis. The functions and tools covered offer versatile solutions for preparing and formatting text data within Excel, improving data clarity and usability across projects. By the end of the course, learners will understand how to restructure, join, and separate text data using built-in Excel capabilities.

Course outline