The fusionSpan Blog

Excel Series: How to Check and Remove Duplicates

By Mary Glavin |June 1, 2016
How ToStrategic Consulting

Best seat in the houseHappy Wednesday all! We’ve survived the long weekend and are back in the swing of things at work. As you’re buzzing by in the productivity lane today, take just a small detour and evaluate how you get your work done most days. If you caught a glimpse of the image with a white X in a green workbook and suddenly feel anxious and frustrated, get ready to turn that frown into a sly grin.

Now take a peak at the image below on the right, Zach Brown Band fans click here, this is how relaxed you will be in Excel after following our Excel series. Prepare facial muscles for sly grin. Comfort level= toes in the sand. 

Microsoft_Excel_2013_logo.svg Most of us know excel has the capabilities to be a lifesaver, but before it proves helpful it can be daunting and stressful. (Keep the music playing)

Sometimes when navigating Excel, it seems the application is set in its ways; the small gridlines on your screen make you feel like a prisoner as your project remains blank and your patience plummet. But Excel can be nothing short of a pot of gold or expansive beach when you realize there is a work around for nearly anything you might want to accomplish.

Getting the inside scoop on excel tips and tricks can make getting your work done infinitely faster and void of errors.Thus this tool deserves its praises from the paragraph above. Cue rainbow.

rainbow-1445337690d8q

 

Here at fusionSpan, Excel is invaluable to our work and we want to share the gold. This series is going the old school route and episodes will be released periodically. 

Season 1, Episode 1: The Pilot: Checking for Duplicates 

Checking for duplicates is a tool that is simple yet timeless, like grilling in the summer or a rubber duck in the bathtub.

fusionSpan Excel wizard, Jess Sansaet details how to check for duplicates and then remove them in Excel 2016 below. Be sure to check out her bio following the post.  Click on any of the instructional images below for larger view of documentation steps. They will open in a new window.  

clapper-297673_960_720

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you’ve populated your information:

  1. Click home
  2. Highlight the data you want to check for
  3. Select Conditional Formatting

Copy of FindDups1

 

 

 

 

Once in conditional formating

  1. Select Highlight Cells Rules
  2. Select Duplicates

FindDups2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you click duplicate values the data you highlighted will designate duplicates by highlighting them as red. From here you can either manually get rid of duplicates or

FindDups3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Click data at the top of the page

7. Highlight the section again

8. Select remove duplicates

RemoveDups1

 

 

 

 

9. Remove duplicates section will pop up and you can select which columns need attending.

RemoveDups2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a fairly simple task but one that can save hours pouring over data. Stay tuned for the next installment by subscribing to the blog. Do you have any excel processes you’d like to see featured? Have a clever name for the series? Comment below! We’ll tag top entries in episode 2.

About Jess

jess

Jessica (Jess) is an IT Analyst at fusionSpan, where she provides support to small staff associations for their technology and registrar needs. She assists with implementing, maintaining and updating websites, membership databases, and event management software.

Mary Glavin

Mary is the Client Support Associate at fusionSpan. She takes care of administrative, communication, and marketing related duties in the office.

More posts