Challenge 1: Building the Transactions and Budget Tables — Solution Walkthrough

Transactions sheet setup:
  1. Row 1 headers: Date | Category | Description | Amount
  2. A few rows per category, e.g.:
       7/1/2026 | Groceries    | Weekly shop        | 62.50
       7/3/2026 | Transport    | Bus pass           | 45.00
       7/5/2026 | Entertainment | Cinema tickets    | 18.00
       7/8/2026 | Groceries    | Top-up shop        | 21.30
  3. Select the full range (including headers), press Ctrl+T, confirm
     "My table has headers," then in Table Design rename it from its
     default name to Transactions.

Budget sheet setup:
  1. Row 1 headers: Category | MonthlyLimit
  2. One row per category:
       Groceries      | 400
       Transport      | 150
       Entertainment  | 100
       (add a 4th category of your choice)
  3. Select the full range, press Ctrl+T, rename the table to Budget.

Confirming auto-expansion:

Click the cell directly below the last row of the Transactions table
and type a new transaction (e.g. a new Date, Category, Description,
Amount). The moment you press Enter, the table's border, banding,
and filter dropdowns extend down to include that new row automatically
— no re-selecting the range or repeating Ctrl+T required.

Explanation:

This is Chapter 7's central promise about Excel Tables in direct
practice: a Table isn't just a formatted range, it's an object that
tracks its own boundaries and grows the moment new data appears
directly adjacent to it. Naming both tables (Transactions, Budget)
rather than leaving them as the generic "Table1"/"Table2" defaults
is what makes the structured references in Exercise 2 (like
Budget[Category]) readable and unambiguous later on.