How to Save and Apply Filter Settings Faster in Excel


Excel has effective filter functions for evaluating table data. Separate filters can also be set for individual columns. This may be good but you have to set the criteria after each time you edit the data. Now that’s tedious!  Though there is no evident way to save the filter settings, a user-defined view retains the settings made. This is saved along with the document. To do this,

  • Set all the desired filter criteria for the worksheet.
  • Then open “View > Custom views” and click “Add”.
  • As the “Name”, enter a brief explanatory name and confirm with “OK”.

You can save further filter configurations as views in the same manner. In order to call these up,

  • Open “View > Custom views”, select the saved entry from the list
  • Click “Show”.

The view is then always applicable for a certain worksheet and cannot be applied to other tables. For quick access to the user-defined views, create a button on  the toolbar. For this,

  • Open “Tools > Adjust” and change to the “Commands” tab.
  • Then select the “View” category on the left side and search for the “Custom views” entry towards right.
  • Drag the element to the desired place on the toolbar.
  • Click “Close” in the “Adjust” dialog.
  • After setting the filters, click in the input area of the symbol, enter a new name and confirm with [Enter].
  • The filter can now be called by selecting this combination field.
Filed under: Tips n Tricks
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July 11, 2009 by: Prasanth Chandra

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