(Image: Table and contents, pivoted. By Tom Longley. Using a spreadsheet to pivot a table helps you see your data clearly and from different angles)

Got lots of data but don't know what it means, or what to do with it? Head over to our new course: A Gentle Introduction to Exploring and Understanding Your Data, which looks at a  magic spreadsheet feature called the pivot table. "Despite having the human friendliness of a sleep-deprived tiger, pivot tables will save you considerable time and effort in understanding and processing your data."