The database capabilities of Excel are very powerful. In fact, not only can Excel be used to create a simple searchable database, it also can be used to create a proper relational database.

To create data bars in Excel, select your cells and then choose data bars from Conditional Formatting.

You can create XML data from a Microsoft Excel 2003 worksheet or workbook, but you'll need to do some manual steps to get the data to conform to valid XML format.

Use INDEX and MATCH for simple database queries in Excel The bigger your spreadsheet, the more you need these, which you can combine with SUM, AVERAGE, and MAX to refine your searches.

Microsoft Office is more than the sum of its parts—you can link an Excel database table to an Access database, integrating your data and adding value. Here's how.