Entering data into excel

Once you know how to enter data into an Excel worksheet you will be setting up tables of data in no time.

When you haven’t been shown how to enter data it can be a little tricky, so follow the steps below to learn the tips and hacks to entering your data easily into your worksheet.

Entering data into an Excel worksheet

You can enter either values (numbers and dates) or labels (text) into any cell within the worksheet.

1. Move the cell pointer to the required cell and then type the data. While you type the data you will notice that it appears both in the worksheet (in the example below, the text appears in cell A1) and in the Formula Bar.

2. Press ENTER to enter the information into the cell. Your cell pointer will move down to the cell below.

Tip: If you press the ESC key instead of ENTER the data will not be entered into the cell.

Deleting and replacing data

• To delete data select the cell containing the data and then press DELETE.
• To replace data just type directly over the top of the existing cell contents. The new data will replace the old.

Using Undo and Redo

There will be times when you enter data only to realise you have made a bit of a mess of things.

Most times you want to back-back to where you were before the mistake was made.  If this happens you can click the fabulous “Undo” button which will undo the last thing you did.

You can actually keep clicking it until you get back to a point where you feel in control again.

And if you go one step to far back, you can click the Redo button to go forward a step again.  These buttons are fabulous and you use them a lot.

Overlapping data

If you enter data that will not fit the column width it will overlap into the next column. In the example below the text ‘Travel Expenses’ is entered into cell A1, however it looks as though the text is included in cells B1. With cell A1 selected we can see in the Formula bar that both words are indeed in A1.

If you are not using the column into which the text is overlapping you may leave the text as it is. However, as soon as you place text into a cell that has been overlapped it will look as if your text has been lost. In the example below, the text ‘Amount ex GST’ has been entered into cell C3. However the content of cell D3 is hiding part of the content is C3.

By selecting C3 the entire cell’s content can be seen in the Formula Bar. In order to view the entire contents of cell C3 the width of column C needs to be adjusted.

Working with columns

The standard column width for Excel is 8.43 character spaces. You can change the column width by dragging with your mouse on the column headers, or by double clicking between two column headers.

Tip: If multiple columns require the same width, select the columns and widen one of them with the mouse. The rest will be adjusted to the same width.

Adjusting the column width

To use your mouse to adjust the column width:

1. Move your mouse pointer over the column’s right edge in the column header area. Your mouse pointer should change to a double-headed arrow.

2. Click and drag to the right to expand, or to the left to shrink the column width to the size you require.

You will now be able to see your entire text. Continue dragging until all columns are the width you require.

Tips:
To quickly adjust the column width to fit the widest entry, move your mouse pointer over the lines between the column headers. When the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow double-click.

Use the same method for adjusting the height of any row. Just move the mouse pointer over the line separating the rows. When the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow, drag or double-click to adjust the row height, or double-click to set the height to fit the tallest entry.

By the way, row heights will automatically alter if the font size of data is altered.

Extra info: to set a column width to a precise measurement on the Home tab in the Cells group select Format and then select Column Width. Type the desired width in the Column Width box and then click OK to accept the new column width.

What do hash signs mean in Excel?

If you ever see a cell containing  ########  (hash signs)  it means the column isn’t wide enough to display the content. Just extend the width and the content will become visible.

Making changes to the data

Once you have entered data into your worksheet, you can edit the data in a number of ways.

• Select the cell and then click in the Formula bar. A flashing insertion point will be placed into the bar. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the insertion point. Make the changes you require and then press ENTER.
• You may also type directly over the data in the cell with new data and then press ENTER. The new data will replace the old.
• Double clicking a cell or pressing F2 allows you to edit the contents of the cell directly on the worksheet. Make the changes and then press ENTER to update the cell.

AutoComplete

AutoComplete is the ability for Excel to automatically complete an entry for you.
For example, if you have typed text in the cells above as soon as you start typing a letter or two in a cell below, Excel will check the list above for a matching entry and complete the entry for you.

This can be very useful when you need to make the same entry several times.

To accept the entry press ENTER. To reject the displayed entry and type something different either ignore the entry and type right over it or press DELETE.

Watch the Video on Using Data Entry Forms in Excel

Below is a detailed written tutorial about Excel Data Entry form in case you prefer reading over watching a video.

Excel has many useful features when it comes to data entry.

And one such feature is the Data Entry Form.

In this tutorial,  I will show you what are data entry forms and how to create and use them in Excel.

Why Do You Need to Know About Data Entry Forms?

Maybe you don’t!

But if data entry is a part of your daily work, I recommend you check out this feature and see how it can help you save time (and make you more efficient).

There are two common issues that I have faced (and seen people face) when it comes to data entry in Excel:

1. It’s time-consuming. You need to enter the data in one cell, then go to the next cell and enter the data for it. Sometimes, you need to scroll up and see which column it is and what data needs to be entered. Or scroll to the right and then come back to the beginning in case there are many columns.
2. It’s error-prone. If you have a huge data set which needs 40 entries, there is a possibility you may end up entering something that was not intended for that cell.

A data entry form can help by making the process faster and less error-prone.

Before I show you how to create a data entry form in Excel, let me quickly show you what it does.

Below is a data set that is typically maintained by the hiring team in an organization.

Every time a user has to add a new record, he/she will have to select the cell in the next empty row and then go cell by cell to make the entry for each column.

While this is a perfectly fine way of doing it, a more efficient way would be to use a Data Entry Form in Excel.

Below is a data entry form that you can use to make entries to this data set.

The highlighted fields are where you would enter the data. Once done, hit the Enter key to make the data a part of the table and move on to the next entry.

Below is a demo of how it works:

As you can see, this is easier than regular data entry as it has everything in a single dialog box.

Data Entry Form in Excel

Using a data entry form in Excel needs a little pre-work.

You would notice that there is no option to use a data entry form in Excel (not in any tab in the ribbon).

To use it, you will have to first add it to the Quick Access Toolbar (or the ribbon).

Adding Data Entry Form Option To Quick Access Toolbar

Below are the steps to add the data entry form option to the Quick Access Toolbar:

1. Right-click on any of the existing icons in the Quick Access Toolbar.
2. Click on ‘Customize Quick Access Toolbar’.
3. In the ‘Excel Options’ dialog box that opens, select the ‘All Commands’ option from the drop-down.
4.  Scroll down the list of commands and select ‘Form’.
5. Click on the ‘Add’ button.
6. Click OK.

The above steps would add the Form icon to the Quick Access Toolbar  (as shown below).

Once you have it in QAT, you can click any cell in your dataset (in which you want to make the entry) and click on the Form icon.

Note: For Data Entry Form to work, your data should be in an Excel Table. If it isn’t already, you’ll have to convert it into an Excel Table (keyboard shortcut – Control + T).

Parts of the Data Entry Form

A Data Entry Form in Excel has many different buttons (as you can see below).

Here is a brief description of what each button is about:

• New: This will clear any existing data in the form and allows you to create a new record.
• Delete: This will allow you to delete an existing record. For example, if I hit the Delete key in the above example, it will delete the record for Mike Banes.
• Restore: If you’re editing an existing entry, you can restore the previous data in the form (if you haven’t clicked New or hit Enter).
• Find Prev: This will find the previous entry.
• Find Next: This will find the next entry.
• Criteria: This allows you to find specific records. For example, if I am looking for all the records, where the candidate was Hired, I need to click the Criteria button, enter ‘Hired’ in the Status field and then use the find buttons. Example of this is covered later in this tutorial.
• Close: This will close the form.
• Scroll Bar: You can use the scroll bar to go through the records.

Now let’s go through all the things you can do with a Data Entry form in Excel.

Note that you need to convert your data into an Excel Table and select any cell in the table to be able to open the Data Entry form dialog box.

If you haven’t selected a cell in the Excel Table, it will show a prompt as shown below:

Creating a New Entry

Below are the steps to create a new entry using the Data Entry Form in Excel:

1. Select any cell in the Excel Table.
2. Click on the Form icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.
3. Enter the data in the form fields.
4. Hit the Enter key (or click the New button) to enter the record in the table and get a blank form for next record.

Navigating Through Existing Records

One of the benefits of using Data Entry Form is that you can easily navigate and edit the records without ever leaving the dialog box.

This can be especially useful if you have a dataset with many columns. This can save you a lot of scrolling and the process of going back and forth.

Below are the steps to navigate and edit the records using a   data entry form:

1. Select any cell in the Excel Table.
2. Click on the Form icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.
3. To go to the next entry, click on the ‘Find Next’ button and to go to the previous entry, click the ‘Find Prev’ button.
4. To edit an entry, simply make the change and hit enter. In case you want to revert to the original entry (if you haven’t hit the enter key), click the ‘Restore’ button.

You can also use the scroll bar to navigate through entries one-by-one.

The above snapshot shows basic navigation where you are going through all the records one after the other.

But you can also quickly navigate through all the records based on criteria.

For example, if you want to go through all the entries where the status is ‘In-progress’, you can do that using the below steps:

Criteria is a very useful feature when you have a huge dataset, and you want to quickly go through those records that meet a given set of criteria.

Note that you can use multiple criteria fields to navigate through the data.

For example, if you want to go through all the ‘In-progress’ records after 07-08-2018, you can use ‘>07-08-2018’ in the criteria for ‘Date’ field and ‘In-progress’ as the value in the status field. Now when you navigate using Find Prev/Find Next buttons, it will only show records after 07-08-2018 where the status is In-progress.

You can also use wildcard characters in criteria.

For example, if you have been inconsistent in entering the data and have used variations of a word (such as In progress, in-progress, in progress, and inprogress), then you need to use wildcard characters to get these records.

Below are the steps to do this:

1. Select any cell in the Excel table.
2. Click on the Form icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.
3. Click the Criteria button.
4. In the Status field, enter *progress
5. Use the Find Prev/Find Next buttons to navigate through the entries where the status is In-Progress.

This works as an asterisk (*) is a wildcard character that can represent any number of characters in Excel. So if the status contains the ‘progress’, it will be picked up by Find Prev/Find Next buttons no matter what is before it).

Deleting a Record

You can delete records from the Data Entry form itself.

This can be useful when you want to find a specific type of records and delete these.

Below are the steps to delete a record using Data Entry Form:

1. Select any cell in the Excel table.
2. Click on the Form icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.
3. Navigate to the record you want to delete
4. Click the Delete button.

While you may feel that this all looks like a lot of work just to enter and navigate through records, it saves a lot of time if you’re working with lots of data and have to do data entry quite often.

Restricting Data Entry Based on Rules

You can use data validation in cells to make sure the data entered conforms to a few rules.

For example, if you want to make sure that the date column only accepts a date during data entry, you can create a data validation rule to only allow dates.

If a user enters a data that is not a date, it will not be allowed and the user will be shown an error.

Here is how to create these rules when doing data entry:

1. Select the cells (or even the entire column) where you want to create a data validation rule. In this example, I have selected column A.
2. Click the Data tab.
3. Click the Data Validation option.
4. In the ‘Data Validation’ dialog box, within the ‘Settings’ tab, select ‘Date’ from the ‘Allow’ drop down.
5. Specify the start and the end date. Entries within this date range would be valid and rest all would be denied.
6. Click OK.

Now, if you use the data entry form to enter data in the Date column, and if it isn’t a date, then it will not be allowed.

You will see a message as shown below:

Similarly, you can use data validation with data entry forms to make sure users don’t end up entering the wrong data. Some examples where you can use this is numbers, text length, dates, etc.

Here are a few important things to know about Excel Data Entry Form:

1. You can use wildcard characters while navigating through the records (through criteria option).
2. You need to have an Excel table to be able to use the Data Entry Form. Also, you need to have a cell selected in it to use the form. There is one exception to this though. If you have a named range with the name ‘Database’, then the Excel Form will also refer to this named range, even if you have an Excel table.
3. The field width in the Data Entry form is dependent on the column width of the data. If your column width is too narrow, the same would be reflected in the form.
4. You can also insert bullet points in the data entry form. To do this, use the keyboard shortcut ALT + 7 or ALT + 9 from your numeric keypad. Here is a video about bullet points.

You May Also Like the Following Excel Tutorials:

• 100+ Excel Interview Questions.
• Drop Down Lists in Excel.
• Find and Remove Duplicates in Excel.
• Excel Text to Columns.

Entering data in Excel is the same as typing text and numbers into the cells in an Excel worksheet. Formatting data in Excel is a process of modifying and customizing the texts and numbers entered.

As discussed in Microsoft Excel Tutorial 1, a cell is an intersection between a column label and a row number. This box has a reference or an address that is referred to when performing computations and analysis.

Before we can analyze or compute data in MS Excel, we must first enter the necessary data row-wise or column-wise. Depending on the nature of the analysis, formatting data and cells may be necessary.

In this tutorial, we shall look at how to enter and format data in an excel worksheet.

Entering data in Microsoft Excel can be done in three major ways:

1. By typing in data into individual cells in an Excel worksheet,
2. By copying and pasting data from another source to selected cells in a worksheet
3. By importing data from an external data source

Enter data in a row or column

Microsoft Excel workspace, otherwise called worksheet is organized in columns and rows. To enter data by typing, you can arrange your data in a row or a column as shown below.

Then, you start typing on the first cell and arrange your column headings on the first row. Continue entering data on the cells below each column heading as you wish until you are done.

How you enter your data depends on the nature and purpose of the data. For more information on data entry in Excel, visit this post: Data Entry in Excel.

Using the fill command

When entering values in Microsoft Excel, you can fill in similar values and formulas across selected rows or columns automatically. This will save you the time and stress of typing similar data into the appropriate cells.

This fill command can be used manually or automatically. To use the manual fill command, do the following:

1. Enter the data or formula in the first cell in a column or row.
2. If it is a constant, e.g., 15, …, enter 15 in the first cell in a column or row.
3. If it is a series, e.g., 1,2,…, enter the first two values in adjacent cells.
4. Highlight the cell(s) with the values.
5. You will see a small box in the bottom right of the highlighted cell(s).

1. Click and drag the box downwards or rightwards to fill in values across columns or rows.

If you find it difficult to use this method, you can use the fill command on the Editing group as follow:

1. Type the first value in a selected cell, and select that cell
2. If you want to fill the same value across columns or rows, then, highlight a range of cells

1. On the Home tab, under Editing group, select Fill.
2. From the fill dropdown menu, select any of Down, Right, Up, or Left.
3. If you want to fill series of values different from each other, thenuse the Series dialog box.
4. On the Fill dropdownmenu, select Series, a dialog box will appear.

1. On the dialog box, select Rows or Columns to specify where the values will fill across.
2. Select Linear under Type and indicate a step and a stop value. You can choose any other type (growth, date, etc.) depending on your need.
3. Click Ok, when you are done. The selected series will be filled automatically across the selected cells.

Copy and paste data in selected cells

You can also enter data in Microsoft Excel by copying from another source and pasting it in a worksheet. This method can be easily achieved by using the clipboard. See how to use the clipboard in our post on: Inserting and Formatting Texts.

To copy and paste data in Excel, do the following:

1. Locate the source of the data.
2. When the data source is opened, select the required data and press CTRL+C on the keyboard.
3. Open the worksheet where you want to paste the data.
4. Select a cell in the worksheet. The selected cell will mark the starting location to paste the data.
5. If you want the data to be placed in a particular range, then select the range.
6. On the Home tab, under the Clipboard group, click Paste. You can also press the CTRL+V key on the Keyboard.

The paste special command

Microsoft Excel gives you different paste options called paste special. When you copy or cut an item in Excel, you have the option to choose from different paste types.

There are about 14 different options namely:

1. Paste: This option is used to paste the copied item(s) using default settings.
2. Paste formula: This option is used to paste formulas in selected cells
3. Paste formula and number formatting: This is used to paste formula and inherent number formatting on the copied data.
4. Keep source format: This is used to paste an item including all formats on the copied data.
5. No borders: Used when a copied data has borders. Use this option to remove the borders.
6. Keep column width: This is used to maintain the column width of the source data.
7. Paste transpose: This is used to paste copied items, and transpose them from column to row and vice versa.
8. Paste values: this option will remove all formulas and formatting on the copied items and paste only values.
9. Values and number formatting: here, you will keep values and number formatting only.
10. Values and source formatting: Here you will keep values and source formatting only
11. Paste formatting: paste only the cell formatting of a copied item
12. Paste link only: paste the link address of a copied item
13. Paste picture: paste copied items as a picture
14. Paste copied items as a picture with the link
15. If you choose the Paste Special… option, a dialog box will appear. On the dialog box, select your required options and click OK.

Undo and redo

When entering and formatting data in Excel and other applications, you may need to undo or redo what was done. The undo and redo commands are located on the QA toolbar.

The undo command is used to revert from current editing to the previous editing in the undo history. While the redo command is used to revert from the previous editing to the current editing.

For example, if I type 15 in a cell and delete it, and replacing the value with 20. I can revert to 15 by clicking the undo button or CTRL+Z on the keyboard. Similarly, if I want to go back to 20, I will click the redo button or CTRL+Y on the keyboard.

The undo and redo command usually keep track of editing done in a workbook in a history log. To go deeper in the log, click the dropdown arrow button and select the entry you want to undo.

Importing data into Excel

The third way you can enter data into excel is by importing data from an external source. Excel gives us the option of importing data from different data sources including a database, text file, webpage, etc.

To import data from an external source, do the following: (We shall import data from a text file).

1. Open an Excel workbook with a blank worksheet. You can also select an empty cell in an existing workbook.
2. On the Data tab, click on Get External Data. From themenu that appears, select your source of data. (NB: The data must be available in the selected format). In our case, choose From Text.

1. The Import text file dialog box will appear.

1. On the dialog box, locate and select the appropriate file you want to import its data and click Import.
2. The Text Import Wizard window will appear.

1. On the text import wizard window, choose the Delimited or Fixed width option. This depends on how your data is typed. In this example, we choose the Delimited.
2. Select My data has headers (if your data has headers: see the preview) and click Next.
3. On the next page, choose your type of delimiter, e.g. tab, comma, etc. Click Next to continue.
4. On the last page, choose the General Column Data Format.
5. When done, click Finish.
6. A dialog box appears requesting how and where to place the data in your worksheet.

1. On the dialog box, select any of Table, PivotTable Report, etc.
2. Also, select the location for the data. If you choose an existing worksheet, select a cell address. You can leave the default.
3. Click Ok and wait for Excel to import the data.
4. NOTE: If you want to import data from an existing table in your workbook, select Existing Connection. From the dialog box that appears, select the Tables tab, then the table and click open. Then continue from 11 above.

These are the three (3) basic methods you can use to enter data into Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet apps.

Formatting data in Excel

Formatting data in Excel involves modifying texts and numbers entered in cells to carry out an analysis. Data entered in Excel may be for presentation, computation, or analysis purposes.

Alignment

Like in Microsoft Word, three types of alignment exist in Microsoft Excel. They include the left, center, and right alignments. Because data is stored in cells, each of these basic alignment types has three modifications: top, middle and bottom.

This means that you can align data in any of the nine different ways: top-left, middle right, bottom center, etc.

When a text is entered, it is aligned at the bottom-left by default, while a number is aligned at the bottom-right by default.

To change the alignment of data in cells, do the following:

1. Select the cell or range of cells to be aligned
2. On the Home tab, under the Alignment group, select any of the alignment types you want.
3. The selected alignment will be applied automatically on the selected cells.

Text and number formatting

You can perform text and number formatting in Excel just as you will do in a Microsoft Word document.

The difference is that instead of selecting text as in word, you will select cells in Excel. The values in cells take the formatting of the cells they reside.

To format the cell content,

1. Select the cell or range of cells you want to apply formatting on.
2. On the Home tab, under the Fonts group, locate and select the formatting command you want.
3. Select your desired command, the content will be automatically formatted. For detail, see Inserting and Formatting Texts.

Formatting cells in Excel

When entering data in excel, other forms of alignment could be used. These types of formatting affect the selected cells and their content. They include merging, shrinking, and wrapping cells.

Merge cells

Merging cells means combining more than one cell. When more than one cell is merged, the combined cells become one. All cells in the group retain the address of the first cell in that group.

If there is content in the cells before the merging, the content of all the cells is lost. However, the content of the first cell in the group is retained. It becomes the content of the merged cell.

To merge cells, do the following:

1. Select the group of adjacent cells you want to merge
2. On the Home tab, under Alignment group, select Merge & Center.
3. The selected cells will be automatically merged.
4. Other options exist when you click the dropdown arrow on the Merge & Center command. Experiment with them.
5. To unmerge cells, select the merged cell
6. On the Home tab, under Alignment group, select Merge & Center. You can click the dropdown arrow button and select Unmerge Cells from the list

Shrink cell content

You can use shrink to fit to reduce the size of the content in a cell. When this is done, the content fits inside the cell without requiring adjustments. However, this is not good when the content is too big for a cell. It can be used only when the content exceeds the size of the cell a little.

To apply shrink to fit, do the following:

1. Select the cell or group of cells you want to shrink its content.
2. On the Home tab, under Alignment group, select Alignment dialog box launcher.
3. A dialog box appears.

1. In the dialog box, under the Alignment tab, select the Shrink to fit option button.
2. Click Ok when done. The content of the selected cells shrinks to enter the cell.

Wrap cells

Wrapping is used to create a multiline text in a worksheet cell. When the content of a cell is too big, you can either expand the column or wrap the content. If none of this is done, the data in the cell will not show clearly.

To wrap the content of a cell, do the following:

1. Select the cell or group of cells you want to wrap their contents
2. On the Home tab, under the Alignment group, select Wrap Text.
3. The content of selected cells will be automatically wrapped.
4. To unwrap the cells, select the wrapped cell and click on the Wrap Text command icon.

Conclusion

We have come to the end of today’s Microsoft Excel tutorial. We were able to look at entering and formatting data in Excel. We began by discussing how you can insert data in a workbook.

We looked at three basic ways of entering data in a worksheet to include: typing, copying, and importing data.

We further discussed how to format data in Excel. We discovered that formatting data in excel implies formatting cells in Excel. This is because data assumes the formatting of the cells they reside. We concluded by looking at different cell formatting options including alignment, merging, and wrapping the content of cells.

These are the basics you need to know before we go into computing and analyzing data in Excel. Particularly, we shall discuss conditional formatting in Excel.

Data entry can sometimes be a big part of using Excel.

With near endless cells, it can be hard for the person inputting data to know where to put what data.

A data entry form can solve this problem and help guide the user to input the correct data in the correct place.

Excel has had VBA user forms for a long time, but they are complicated to set up and not very flexible to change.

In this blog post, we’re going to explore 5 easy ways to create a data entry form for Excel.

Video Tutorial

Excel Tables

We’ve had Excel tables since Excel 2007.

They’re perfect data containers and can be used as a simple data entry form.

Creating a table is easy.

1. Select the range of data including the column headings.
2. Go to the Insert tab in the ribbon.
3. Press the Table button in the Tables section.

We can also use a keyboard shortcut to create a table. The Ctrl + T keyboard shortcut will do the same thing.

Make sure the Create Table dialog box has the My table has headers option checked and press the OK button.

We now have our data inside an Excel table and we can use this to enter new data.

To add new data into our table we can start typing a new entry into the cells directly below the table and the table will absorb the new data.

We can use the Tab key instead of Enter while entering our data. This will cause the active cell cursor to move to the right instead of down so we can add the next value into our record.

When the active cell cursor is in the last cell of the table (lower right cell), pressing the Tab key will create a new empty row in the table ready for the next entry.

This is a perfect and simple data entry form.

Data Entry Form

Excel actually has a hidden data entry form and we can access it by adding the command to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Add the form command to the Quick Access Toolbar.

1. Right click anywhere on the quick quick access toolbar.
2. Select Customize Quick Access Toolbar from the menu options.

This will open up the Excel option menu on the Quick Access Toolbar tab.

1. Select Commands Not in the Ribbon.
2. Select Form from the list of available commands. Press F to jump to the commands starting with F.
3. Press the Add button to add the command into the quick access toolbar.
4. Press the OK button.

We can then open up data entry form for any set of data.

1. Select a cell inside the data which we want to create a data entry form with.
2. Click on the Form icon in the quick access toolbar area.

This will open up a customized data entry form based on the fields in our data.

Microsoft Forms

If we need a simple data entry form, why not use Microsoft Forms?

This form option will require our Excel workbook to be saved into SharePoint or OneDrive.

The form will be in a browser and not in Excel, but we can link the form to an Excel workbook so that all the data goes into our Excel table.

This is a great option if multiple people or people outside our organization need to input data into the Excel workbook.

We need to create a Form for Excel in either SharePoint or OneDrive. The process is the same for both SharePoint or OneDrive.

1. Go to a SharePoint document library or a OneDrive folder where the Excel workbook is going to be saved.
2. Click on New and then choose Forms for Excel.

This will prompt us to name the Excel workbook and open up a new browser tab where we can build our form by adding different types of questions.

We first need to create the Form and this will create the table in our Excel workbook where the data will get populated.

Then we can share the form with anyone we want to input data into Excel.

When a user enters data into the form and presses the submit button, that data will automatically show up into our Excel workbook.

Power Apps

Power Apps is a flexible drag and drop formula based app building platform from Microsoft.

We can certainly use it to create a data entry from for our Excel data.

In fact, if we have a table of data set up, Power Apps will create the app for us based on our data. It can’t be any easier than that.

Sign in to the powerapps.microsoft.com service ➜ go to the Create tab in the navigation pane ➜ select Excel Online.

We’ll then be prompted to sign in to our SharePoint or OneDrive account where our Excel file is saved to select the Excel workbook and table with our data.

This will generate us a fully functional three screen data entry app.

1. We can search and view all the records in our Excel table in a scroll-able gallery.
2. We can view an individual record in our data.
3. We can edit an existing record or add new records.

This is all connected to our Excel table, so any changes or additions from the app will show up in Excel.

Power Automate

Power Automate is a cloud based tool for automating task between apps.

But we can use the button trigger to make an automation that captures user input and adds the data into an Excel table.

We’ll need to have our Excel workbook saved in OneDrive or SharePoint and have a table already setup with the fields we want to populate.

To create our Power Automate data entry form.

1. Go to flow.microsoft.com and sign in.
2. Go to the Create tab.
3. Create an Instant flow.
4. Give the flow a name.
5. Choose the Manually trigger a flow option as the trigger.
6. Press the Create button.

This will open up the Power Automate builder and we can build our automation.

1. Click on the Manually trigger a flow block to expand the trigger’s options. This is where we’ll find the ability to add input fields.
2. Click on the Add an input button. This will give us options to add a few different types of input fields including Text, Yes/No, Files, Email, Number and Dates.
3. Rename the field to something descriptive. This will help the user know what type of data to input when they run this automation.
4. Click on the three ellipses to the right of each field to change the input options. We’ll be able to Add a drop-down list of option, Add a multi-select list of options, Make the field optional or Delete the field from this menu.
5. After we have added all our input fields, we can now add a New step to the automation.

Search for the Excel connector and add the Add a row into a table action. If you’re on an Office 365 business account, use the Excel Online (Business) connectors, otherwise use the Excel Online (OneDrive) connectors.

Now we can set up our Excel Add a row into a table step.

1. Navigate to the Excel file and table where we are going to be adding data.
2. After selecting the table, the fields in that table will appear listed and we can add the appropriate dynamic content from the Manually trigger a flow trigger step.

Now we can run our Flow from the Power Automate service.

1. Go to My flows in the left navigation pane.
2. Go to the My flows tab.
3. Find the flow in the list of available flows and click on the Run button.
4. A side pane will pop up with our inputs and we can enter our data.
5. Click Run flow.

We can also run this from our mobile device with the Power Automate apps.

1. Go to the Buttons section in the app.
2. Press on the flow to run.
3. Enter the data inputs in the form.
4. Press on the DONE button in the top right.

Whichever way we run the flow, a few seconds later the data will appear in our Excel table.

Conclusions

Whether we require a simple form or something more complex and customize-able, there is a solution for our data entry needs.

We can quickly create something inside our workbook or use an external solution that connects to and loads data into Excel.

We can even create forms that people outside our organization can use to populate our spreadsheets.

Let me know in the comments what is your favourite data entry form option.

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