Excel is a pinnacle tool for many, many businesses. Its powerful options and capabilities allow it to be used for a multitude of problems and solutions including tracking business data, calculations, a decision support tool, a data converter or even a display spreadsheet for information interpretation.
If you’re sinking a bit of time into using Excel, you’re going to want to make sure you’re not wasting time, and that you’re getting the most out of it. Here are 9 simple tips to get speed up and enhance your Excel experience.
Navigation
Scooting around your spreadsheet with speed and dexterity will really speed up your workload. Below are some quick and easy keyboard shortcuts to help you navigate around your sheets easier.
Skip to the end of the document: “Ctrl+End”.
Skip to the beginning of the document: “Ctrl+Home”.
Skip to the end of the Line: “Ctrl+right arrow”.
Skip to the beginning of the Line: “Ctrl+left arrow”.
Quick Sum Alt & +
=SUM is the most common function used in Excel to quickly add up a selection of cells. This is the most common mathematical function used in Excel. Why not speed up using the sum function with Quick Sum? Simply highlight the cell where you want a result to appear and press Alt and +. If this doesn’t highlight your intended cells automatically, just click and select the cells you want.
Freeze Panes
Have you ever wanted some cells to stay locked to the top, or side of your spreadsheet, even when you scroll down? Whether you’re looking to lock headers or a row/column of cells with a bit of company branding in it or to keep some explanatory text at the top of your sheet, it is as easy as pressing one button – it can make your sheets a lot easier to read and digest, and make them look a lot better if you’re ever sharing it with another person.
Conditional formatting
Conditional formatting can save you a lot of time when it comes to the presentation of your excel sheet. It can make your spreadsheet easily digestible at a glance. From Colour scales to quickly highlight higher and lower numbers, to icons to show percentage sizes, conditional formatting quickly and easily makes your spreadsheet look better and a lot more easily interpretable.
Change the number of default sheets
If you use excel a lot, and are a fan of using multiple sheets, then the standard 3 may get a little annoying if you’re constantly having to add more for every new sheet you make. If you want excel to open automatically with 4 sheets, or 12 for the year or even 13 for a company working in 13 periods, you can set the default in Excel to save you a little time.
Just head to File>Options>General and change the number of sheets you wish to open, when creating a new workbook.
Change the ‘Sheet’ name
You don’t have to be restricted to Sheet 1, Sheet 2, Sheet 3. You can change the name of your sheets at the bottom of the workbook to say whatever you want, and be a different colour. Customize your sheets to make them that little bit easier to navigate, and understandable at a glance.
Just simply right click the sheet at the bottom and select Rename or Tab Colour.
Make use of format painter
Format painter can be one of the most useful buttons in Excel, if you’re looking to quickly and easily make your spreadsheets look consistent and attractive. Much the same as when used in a word document, you select a selection of cell, press the format painter button, and drag around your desired cells.
Change your ‘Enter’ button move direction
As a default, when you press the Enter button in Excel, your cell selection will move down. If you’re working on a sheet that may require a lot of shifting to the left or right, it may be a lot more effective to change the enter button direction, rather than using tab, or arrow keys.
Simply head to Options > Advanced then select the direction you want the selection to move upon pressing.
Make use of F Functions!
F1 – Opens Excel Help
F2 – Moves the insertion point to the end of the contents of the active cell
F3 – Displays the Paste Name dialog box.
F4 – Repeats the last action
F5 – Displays the Go To dialog box
F6 – Moves to the next pane in a worksheet that has been split
F7 – Displays the spelling dialog box
F8 – Turns on/off extend mode
F9 – Calculates the workbook
F10 – shows key tips, for navigating without a mouse
F11 – Creates a chart sheet of a selected range
F12 – Brings up Save As dialog box
Find out more about F functions here:
http://www.excel-easy.com/examples/function-keys.html
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