Boost your way to super-powered Excel and save hours! In this blog, share the top 10 essential tips about Excel using simple explanations so everyone can track them. Let’s dive in.
a) Sum a column or row quickly using AutoSum.
- Select a column or row that you would like to sum up.
- You can either press “Alt & then +”
or Click on “AutoSum” which looks like “Ʃ” and is located at the top of the toolbar
Pro Excel Tip: Clicking the drop-down arrow near AutoSum computes averages, counts, and other statistics
b) Freeze Panes for Easy Navigation
How to Freeze Panes
- Select the row or column to the right of or below the section you want to freeze.
- Open the “View” tab and click “Freeze Panes”
- Click “Freeze Top Row” or “Freeze First Column.”
c) Clean Up Your Data by Using Filters
- Click anywhere inside your data range.
- Go to the “Data” tab, then click “Filter.”. or Press Ctrl- Shift-L all together
- At the top of each column, you will see small dropdown arrows. Click them to sort or filter data as needed.
d) Split Text Easily into Columns
- Select the column that contains the text you want to split, such as “First Last Name”
- Open the “Data” tab and click on “Text to Columns”.
- Choose “Delimited” or “Fixed Width,” depending on your data.
- Click next and draw an aero from where you want the words to be separated.
Click next, select the range and hit Finish, to get the desired results. It is a super fast way to clear messy data.
e) Remove Duplicates in a Flash
- Select the data range
- Go to the Data tab and click Remove Duplicates
- Select the columns where the duplicates need to be removed and click OK
f) Drop-Down Lists
- Choose the cell(s) where you wish to create the drop-down
- Select the “Data tab” and click on “Data Validation”.
- Click on data validation and select the list option. ( Note- You must create a list in advance in a separate tab)
- Visit the sheet where you have created the list & select the range which you want to use as a drop-down.
Now you have the dropdown available and it will give you an error if you try to add anything outside the selected list.
g) Conditional Formatting for Visual Insights
- Select the cells you wish to format
- On the “Home” tab, click the arrow next to Conditional Formatting.
- Select a rule (for example, Highlight values greater than X) or build one
Pro Excel Tip: Color scales are very good at letting you see trends easily.
h) Add Sparklines for Fast Data Visualization
- Select the cell where you want the sparkline to display
- Go to the “Insert” tab and click “Sparklines” (Line, Column, or Win/Loss).
- Select the data range and then select the range where you want sparklines to be placed and then click OK
Pro Tip: Sparklines are super useful for tracking trends in tiny datasets.
i) Flash Fill to Automatically Format Your Data
- Begin by writing the desired format in a new column, such as extracting initials.
Write initials for the first entry, select the cell, and then please Ctrl+E; it will write the rest for you. Or you can click on flash fill to get similar results
j) Prevent Formulas-Carrying Cells from Being Ruined
- Press Ctrl + A to select all.
- Right-click and select Format Cells, then go to the Protection tab
- Deselect all Locked cells
- Select cells with formulas; freeze and protect the whole sheet by opening the Review tab.
Pro Excel Tip: This practice is essential for keeping your formulas accurate and reliable in shared workbooks.
Conclusion:
Undeniably, among the most useful tools in a modern professional is Excel. Managing data, reports, and even workflows can benefit significantly from one’s ability to work with the software. Being able to make efficient use of the basic tips and tricks to work with this application will, besides saving a lot of time, help someone work smarter, and more efficiently. The skills have immense value for anyone aiming to stand out at work or to successfully take on whatever tasks are coming his way.
These tips can change the way you approach working-from organizing a huge dataset to automating repetition tasks. Excellence in Excel doesn’t just stand for a certain level of technical knowledge, it stands for professional improvement and problem-solving also. Adopting these techniques will get you going on a sure path of being an Excel master, astonishing colleagues, and doing much more in far less time. So, put these learnings today to good use and unlock more possibilities with Microsoft Excel.
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