Excel 101

How to Use Excel Spreadsheets

The Lexbe eDiscovery Platform (LEP) supports the two most recent versions of Excel (2010 and 2013).  Best practice is to upgrade from older versions of Excel before exporting logs.  If using older versions (before 2010), the user may lose formatting, hyperlinks, scripts, image files (HTML only) or lists of data in a single cell.

Export to Excel

Document information, along with selected built-in and custom tags, can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet that can be saved to a user's local computer or network. From the Browse, Search, Facts and Issues, Case Notes, and Privilege Log screens, users can execute the Export to Excel function. Users should first expose the desired fields in the document table. See the Layouts section on the following Technical Note, Shared Features (Browse & Search), for information on exposing fields and setting layouts. Once the fields have been set, users can then select the desired documents for the Excel log from the document table. Once the documents are selected, clicking EXPORT LOG TO EXCEL from the 'Export' section on the left-side panel of the screen will allow users to download and save an Excel spreadsheet of the data visible on the screen.  

The Excel spreadsheet will populate Column A with the hyperlinked Doc Id for the associated documents. As long as a user is logged into the case in the platform, the user can click the Doc Id link to navigate to the document in the case.

Useful Tips

Find Function.  This feature returns the location of a sub-string in a string. This can be accessed from the Home tab in the Editing section in Excel. The fastest way to access this function is CTRL+F.    

Filtering.  The Filter function can be accessed from the Data tab under the Sort & Filter section (or from the Home tab as in the image above). To filter on the data, select the column, click on Data->Filter from the menu bar or press CTRL+SHIFT+L. 

Sorting.  The Sort function can be accessed from the data tab under the Sort & Filter section (or from the Home tab). This function allows the user to reorder data based on the type of sorting.  Select the column(s), click Data-> Sort from the menu bar or press CTRL+SHIFT+L to access the drop-down menu.  Sort data in Alphabetical Order (Ascending), Reverse Alphabetical Order (Descending) or Customize Sort.

An Excel spreadsheet may be edited and shared without specific privileges. It is the user's sole responsibility.