Excel 2007: Even Quicker Formulas
Last week, we discussed quick searches for formulas in MS Excel. Although Excel 2007 has some easy browsing techniques if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, what if you know what you need, but can’t remember the exact name of the formula?
Is there a quick way to get to that specific spelling without going to the Formula ribbon?
I’m happy to report… Continue reading
Text to Excel: The Easy Way
Do you frequently copy text from MS Word to Excel? Do you dislike the way it pastes into the cells, causing a nightmare when it comes to formatting your pages? Want a quick solution?
Then try pasting your text as a picture!
In older versions of Excel, you’ll need the Edit menu, Paste Special choice.
In Excel 2007, on the Home ribbon, click the… Continue reading
I Need a Worksheet Pronto!
Here’s one for all you MS Excel users who find yourself constantly going to the Insert menu, Worksheet choice every time you need another worksheet. Instead, try this two-key solution!
The next time you need to insert a worksheet, simply use Shift + F11. Instantly, a new worksheet is added to your workbook.
Also, if you’re an Excel 2007 user, you’ll find that they have… Continue reading
Bring It On Over
Recently, I had a reader write in and ask about resizing items that have been copied from MS Excel and pasted into MS Word. It seems as if the usual copy/paste routine isn’t doing the job, because the pasted items are just too big.
(Note to Office 2007 users: I found that the regular paste works just fine in Word. It could be resized and moved… Continue reading
No Accidental Replacement Saves
Do you have an MS Word, Excel or PowerPoint file you frequently open, make changes to and then save under a new name? Is it important for you not to lose the original information? How many times have you accidentally overwritten the original information with the new file?
I bet the answer to that is something along the lines of, “Way too many to remember!” I’d… Continue reading
Why Am I Back There Again?
Have you ever scrolled a long way through an MS Excel worksheet and, while you were looking around, hit an arrow key to move? If so, you found yourself right back where you started, didn’t you?
What happened?
I mean, you were a hundred lines down and now you’re right back at the top.
Don’t panic! You’re not hallucinating, the program isn’t malfunctioning and… Continue reading
Moving Cell Contents Without Borders in Excel
So, you need to move some data around in your Excel worksheet and you’re a bit frustrated. Sound familiar?
No matter what you try (Ctrl + X or a simple drag and drop), you’ve not only managed to move the data, but all the formatting and borders as well.
Looking for a way to move just the contents, leaving the borders and such… Continue reading
Drag Data Between Excel Worksheets
Have you ever tried to drag and drop data from one worksheet to another in MS Excel?
What happened?
I’m willing to bet you started dragging the information toward the sheet tabs (looking to switch between worksheets) and you were stunned to find that all the worksheet wanted to do was zoom off to some extremely high row number.
So, now what?
Well, many people… Continue reading
For Your Eyes Only
Have you ever been in a situation where you’re working on sensitive material in MS Excel and someone walks up behind you?
What do you do?
Do you quickly minimize the entire program?
Yeah, I’ve done that too. But what if you need Excel to work on another project with the person who came in?
You could go through the hassle of closing and saving the… Continue reading
Double Click to Exit?
Are you currently using MS Excel 2007?
Do you sometimes notice that when you click the red X in the upper right corner of the title bar, Excel simply closes the workbook, but leaves the program running?
You’ve probably found that you actually have to click the red X again to get out of Excel, right?
Well, I don’t know about you, but that drives me… Continue reading
More or Less
For my readers who are fairly new users of MS Excel, here’s a quick, yet infinitely useful tip for changing the number of decimal places displayed in one of your cells!
You’re looking for these two buttons located on the Formatting toolbar or in Excel 2007, they’re on the Home ribbon, Number section:
(If you’re using older versions of Excel and you don’t see them, go… Continue reading
A Good Form Isn’t So Hard To Find
Do you have rows and rows of data to enter in MS Excel?
If so, do you find it tiresome to navigate through cell after cell to the right and then at the end, go back to the beginning of the next row?
It does seem like a lot of extra navigation work that I, for one, could live without!
So, the… Continue reading
Formatting Be Gone!
Working in MS Excel?
If so, have you found yourself in a situation where your worksheet has so much formatting, it’s beginning to be a bit ridiculous? I mean, how much time can you possibly spend keeping all that formatting consistent?
Wish you could remove it all and just start over?
Maybe you’ve tried that and found it was just too much work to remove it all… Continue reading
Customize Your Stripes
Okay, so you used yesterday’s tip in MS Excel 2007 for every other row highlighting, correct?
Were you disappointed that you couldn’t find a formatting choice to meet your needs?
Well, don’t despair! Microsoft included a way to customize table formats, making it quite easy to customize your stripes.
To create a custom table format, you need to start with the Format as Table button on the… Continue reading
Do You See Stripes?
Over the years, I’ve received a few requests for quick and easy ways to format every other row in MS Excel with a highlighted color.
Everyone’s tired of completing the formatting manually and I must say, I have to agree!
So, as you can imagine, I was quite pleased to find a way to make those formatting changes with just a few clicks in Excel 2007.… Continue reading
Long Distance Scrolling in Excel
You all know how the scrolling works in MS Excel, right? The scroll bar basically allows for easy movement in the vicinity of the columns and rows that are already in use.
But, what if you’re looking to scroll well beyond that?
You could use the Page Up, Page Down and arrow keys to make your journey, but you may just prefer scrolling. So, what… Continue reading
Calling On Other Worksheets
I’m sure you’ve all used cell references in your MS Excel formulas, right? You know, let’s say you want to add cells A2 and A3 and write a formula to do this in another location. Maybe even something as simple as =A2 + A3.
These formulas are great and pretty easy to use, but let’s say there’s a piece of data from one worksheet that you… Continue reading
Click in Your References
Did you know you don’t have to type cell locations into formulas in MS Excel?
I don’t know about you, but I think it’s a pain to have to verify all my cell locations just so I can type them into a formula somewhere else in the worksheet!
Wouldn’t it be much easier to simply click on cell B26, for example, instead of looking for the… Continue reading
Hide/Unhide Excel Key Combinations
Do you find yourself hiding data in MS Excel? Maybe using the Format menu, Row or Column sub-menus and then the Hide or Unhide choices? Or, maybe you prefer the old right click menu.
All of those are excellent techniques for making necessary data “invisible.” They allow you to organize your worksheet the way you want and yet, easily display only the necessary information.
Those methods… Continue reading
Navigation Keys for Excel’s Print Preview
Do you frequently use the print preview feature in MS Excel?
I’m sure you all know that by using the scroll wheel on your mouse, you can quickly flip between the pages with just a slight touch of your finger to the wheel.
But, if you’re more of a keyboard person, even the speed of the mouse wheel just isn’t good enough!
Here are… Continue reading
Seeing the Unseen
Ever find yourself frustrated with MS Excel as you create a worksheet that you’re specifically trying to keep to one page wide?
Are you constantly flipping back and forth from the worksheet to the print preview so that you can “keep an eye” on things and make sure you’re not designing something that exceeds your intended print size?
I know some of you have a back up… Continue reading
From Here to Home
I’m sure you all know about Ctrl + Home in MS Excel, right? If not, it’s a quick trip to cell A1 in the upper left corner of your worksheet.
Well, here’s another quick one you can use with that same move!
If you’re looking to highlight all your cells, in a rectangle, from the currently selected cell to cell A1, try adding the Shift key.… Continue reading
I Didn’t Mean to Make a Change!
Are you an “accidental double clicker” in MS Excel?
Do you try to select or highlight cells, accidentally double click and then suddenly find that you’ve made changes to a cell’s contents?
If so, you just need to resort to the Undo button or the Esc key to reverse the mistake and then try the cell selection again.
Tired of repeating your work?… Continue reading
One Handed Cell Selections
We all know that you can select non-adjacent cells in MS Excel by holding down the Control key and clicking in various locations on your worksheet.
But, do you ever find yourself frustrated, because you’re trying to highlight non-adjacent cells and the phone is ringing or you need to flip through papers?
What did you do?
Having a third hand would certainly be a good thing… Continue reading
Data Range Reduction or Increase
Have you ever found yourself looking at a range of data in MS Excel, wishing for an easy way to increase or decrease all their values by the same factor or amount?
Maybe each value must be reduced by 10 percent or maybe each one must be increased by a constant amount.
Whatever your situation, I’m sure you’d like a quick and easy way to… Continue reading
Corner to Corner
I’m sure you’re all aware of the quick and easy Ctrl + Home function in MS Excel, which is an immediate selection of cell A1, right? I mean, no matter where you are in your worksheet, Ctrl + Home will quickly take you to cell A1.
It’s an excellent time saver!
But, what about the other end of the spectrum?
Is there a way to get to… Continue reading
Moving with Choices
We all know that if we click, hold and drag the outline around a selected MS Excel cell (that is, when you have the four direction arrow), we can then drag the contents around the worksheet and move them to a new location.
Very nice. Quick and easy.
But would you like some choices added to this maneuver?
No problem!
Instead of a left click, hold and… Continue reading
