In this article, I’ll share 10 Excel tips to help you be more productive and make your job easier. Be sure to read the entire list to find the tips that are most helpful to you.
I’ll jump straight to the action below. Be sure to bookmark this page so you can come back here if you forget any of the helpful tips I will share.
Take advantage of the status bar
Every time you highlight a range of numbers, the status bar at the bottom of Excel will provide you with useful information. You can find information about the sum, average and total of numbers.
Many people are aware of the status bar, but did you know that you can right-click it to add additional functionality? For example, you can add the minimum and maximum values ??in a range.
Use shortcuts for quick navigation
If you need to quickly navigate the worksheet, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts.
- Ctrl + End – go to the rightmost cell where you entered data.
- Ctrl + home – go to the beginning.
- Ctrl + Right Arrow – Move to the far right of the Excel sheet.
- Ctrl + Left Arrow – Move to the far left of the Excel sheet.
- Ctrl + Up Arrow – Move to the top of the Excel sheet.
- Ctrl + Down Arrow – Move to the bottom of the Excel sheet.
Pinned rows
If you want some rows to remain at the top of the Excel sheet when scrolling, select the row by clicking its letter on the left, and then click View at the top. Then click Freeze Areas to get the following options:
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- Dock Panels – dock everything based on the current view.
- Freeze Top Line – Freeze only the top line.
- Freeze First Column – Freeze only the first column.
Quick Select Formats
This tip can save you a lot of time if you are constantly typing formulas. When you start typing a formula, you can use the up / down arrow keys to browse the suggested formulas and the tab key to automatically select that formula. This method is often much faster than entering the entire formula each time.
Autofill information
If you are filling in a data range, you can select that range and then drag it down to automatically fill other cells with the following information. There are many ways to make this more productive. For example, it can be used to automatically enter sequential dates.
Excel can guess what information you want to fill in automatically. For example, if you have a column that appears every third day, it can follow this pattern using the auto-complete feature.
Create a macro to automate a task
If there are any tasks that you are constantly doing in Excel, you can create a macro to automate the process. To do this, follow these steps.
- Click File.
- Click Options.
- Click Customize Ribbon.
- On the General tab, select to activate the Developer field.
- Click OK.
- Now click on the new Developer tab at the top of the Excel ribbon.
- Then click the “Record Macro” button.
- Now name the macro and choose a shortcut for it.
- You can also add a description to make it easier for you in the future.
- Then just complete any task as you normally would in Excel.
- Then click the Stop Recording button.
- Now you can use the shortcut you created to instantly complete the task you just recorded.
Create a beautiful schedule in seconds
You can create visually attractive tables in seconds by following these steps.
- First, select the data you want to add to the table.
- Click the Insert tab.
- Click Table.
- The selection now has a border.
- Click OK to create the table.
You can use the table icons in the upper right corner to change colors, and use the checkboxes below the design tab to change the layout.
You can also click the small icon below the table when you hover over the table. A small menu will open to create charts, tables, formatting rules, and more.
Use Go to search for specific cells
If your Excel sheet contains a huge amount of data, it becomes difficult to keep track of everything. You can use the Go To tool to make it easier to find specific cells. It works in a similar way to the Search tool in Microsoft Word.
- First, select the data range in which you want to find information.
- Or just press Ctrl + A to select everything.
- Find the Edit section on the Home tab in the upper right corner.
- Click Go.
- You can then enter a meaning, a word, or use the “special” tab to find more specific items.
Tip: You can create a comment for any cells you want to easily find later on, and then use the Comment selection in the Special tab when using Go.
Change how “entry” works
By default, hitting Enter will take you a cell down, but there is a way to change how Enter works in Excel. To change this, go to File, then Options, then click the Advanced tab.
From here, you can choose whether the Enter key will move you up, down, right, or left. Alternatively, you can simply disable this feature entirely. This is useful if you want to save your input as an easy way to validate data and would prefer to manually navigate through the cells.
Copy the same data to multiple cells at once
You can quickly copy data from one cell to any number of cells. To do this, first press Ctrl + C on the cell you want to copy. Then select the cells you want to copy to and press Ctrl + V.
Summary
Did you find these Excel tips helpful? I hope so. If you have any questions about the tips I’ve included in this article, please contact me on Twitter and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Enjoy!
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