Excel Tips and Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts
Ctrl+‘ If text is in the cell above the current, cell, this copies the text. If a
formula is there, it makes an exact copy of the formula (not relative).

Ctrl+; inserts the current date.

Ctrl+Shift+; inserts the current time

Home moves to the first cell in the current row.

Ctrl+Home moves to the first cell in the worksheet.

Ctrl+End moves to the last used cell on the worksheet.

Ctrl+Page Down moves to the next sheet in the workbook.

Ctrl+Page Up moves to the previous sheet in the workbook.

Tips
Pasting Clean Text
To paste text copied from the Web or other documents without including any
formatting that might be creating problems in your new document:

Instead of choosing the Paste command, use Edit/Paste Special and select
Unformatted Text from the list.

Prevent automatic corrections

• On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect.

• To prevent all automatic corrections, clear the Replace text as you type
check box.
• To prevent specific types of corrections, clear the check box for the
corresponding option.

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Autocalculate
To do a quick calculation on a range, select the range, then look at the right side
of the status bar at the bottom of the window. The default is the sum function,
but right-click on the sum to choose other functions.

Autofill
1. Select the cells that contain the data you want to copy.
2. Drag the fill handle (plus sign in lower right corner of cell) across the cells
you want to fill, and then release the mouse button.
Autosum

You can insert a sum for a range of cells automatically by using AutoSum. When
you select the cell where you want to insert the sum and click AutoSum,
Microsoft Excel suggests a formula. To accept the formula, press ENTER. To
change the suggested formula, select the range you want to total and press
ENTER.

AutoCorrect
Prevent automatic corrections

1. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect.

2. To prevent all automatic corrections, clear the Replace text as you type
check box.
3. To prevent specific types of corrections, clear the check box for the
corresponding option.

Controlling the worksheet display

Keep row and column labels visible as you scroll

1. To freeze the top horizontal pane, select the row below where you want
the split to appear.
2. To freeze the left vertical pane, select the column to the right of where you
want the split to appear.
3. To freeze both the upper and left panes, click the cell below and to the
right of where you want the split to appear.
4. On the Window menu, click Freeze Panes
5. To unfreeze panes, click Window menu, click Unfreeze Panes

View two parts of a sheet at the same time

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 1. At the top of the vertical scroll bar or at the right end of the horizontal scroll
bar, point to the split box.
2. When the pointer changes to a split pointer, drag the split box down or to
the left to the position you want.

Hiding rows and columns

1. Select the rows or columns you want to hide.

2. On the Format menu, point to either Row or Column, and then click Hide

Display hidden rows or columns

1. To display hidden rows, select cells in the row above and shift click cells in
the row below the hidden rows; or drag from cell in row above to cell in
row below.
2. To display hidden columns, select cells in the column to the left and shift
click cells in the column to the right of the hidden columns, . or drag from
cell in column on left to cell in column on right.
3. On the Format menu, point to either Row or Column, and then click
Unhide.

Tip If the first row or column of a worksheet is hidden, click Go To on the Edit
menu. Type A1 in the Reference box, and click OK. Point to Row or Column on
the Format menu, and then click Unhide.

Controlling How Excel Interprets Percentages

When you format a cell to display percentages, Excel assumes that whatever you
enter into that cell in the future will be a percentage. Thus, if you enter the
number.5, Excel translates the value as 50%.

A potential problem comes into play, however, when you start to enter numbers
greater than or equal to one. For instance, if you put in the number 12, do you
mean 12% or 1200%? By default, Excel thinks you mean the latter. Excel
includes a control that allows you to specify how you want it to interpret what you
enter. If you want Excel to treat the value as 12% instead of 1200%, follow these
steps:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu.

2. Make sure the Edit tab is selected.
3. Make sure the Enable Automatic Percent Entry check box is selected.
4. Click on OK.

This control was added in Excel 2000; it is not available in Excel 97.

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Changing the zoom level of a worksheet

• In the Zoom box on the toolbar, click the size you want, or enter a number
from 10 to 400.
• To enlarge the selected area to fill the window, click Selection.

Eliminate Duplicates in a List

1. Highlight the data range and choose Data/Filter/Advanced Filter from the
menu.
2. Check “Filter the list in-place” and “Unique records only,” then click OK.
This hides the duplicates.
3. Copy the data range to another worksheet—the hidden rows will be
omitted.

DATEDIF Function
Returns the time between two dates, measured in your choice of completed
years, completed months, or days.

Syntax

DATEDIF(start_date,end_date,unit)

Start_date is a date that represents the first, or starting, date of the period.
Dates may be entered as text strings within quotation marks (for example,
"2001/1/30"), as serial numbers (for example, 36921, which represents January
30, 2001, if you're using the 1900 date system), or as the results of other
formulas or functions (for example, DATEVALUE("2001/1/30")).

End_date is a date that represents the last, or ending, date of the period.

Unit is the type of information you want returned; it must be enclosed in quotes.

This function is handy for calculating a person’s age. Put the person’s birth date
in cell A1 and write this formula in cell B1 to calculate the age in years:
=DATEDIF(A1,Now(),”y”)

SUBTOTAL Function
Subtotal calculates a subtotal for a list. If you are summing a filtered list, it will
ignore hidden values, while the SUM function will include them.

Syntax

SUBTOTAL(function_num,ref1,ref2,...)

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Substitute 9 for function_num to get a sum. Ref1, ref2, are 1 to 29 ranges or
references for which you want the subtotal.

Notes

• A list in Excel has to have no blank lines

• There has to be a field that stays the same throughout the part of the list
you want to subtotal.

• You can choose from a list of functions, such as average, product, max,
and min, in addition to sum.

• If there are other subtotals within ref1, ref2,… (or nested subtotals), these
nested subtotals are ignored to avoid double counting.

• SUBTOTAL will ignore any hidden rows that result from a list being
filtered. This is important when you want to subtotal only the visible data
that results from a list that you have filtered.

TODAY Function
The TODAY function places the current date in a cell.

Syntax
TODAY( )

ISBLANK Function
This function makes it easier to read a spreadsheet by shading blank cells and
removing the shading when something is entered.

1. Select the cells you want shaded if they are empty.

2. Choose Conditional Formatting from the Format menu.
3. Choose the Condition drop-down to choose Formula Is.
4. In the formula area to the right of the drop-down list, enter the following
formula, replaceing A1 with the address of the cell selected in step1:

ISBLANK(A1)

5. Click Format to display the Format Cells dialog box.

6. Click the Patterns tab.
7. Select the color you want used for shading the cell if it is blank.
8. Click OK/OK.

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Linking External Data from Excel to a Word Document
1. Open both the Word document and the Microsoft Excel workbook that
contains the data you want to link to Word.
2. Switch to Microsoft Excel, and then select the entire worksheet, a range of
cells, or the chart you want.
3. Click Edit/Copy.
4. Switch to the Word document, and then click where you want to insert the
data.
5. On the Edit menu, click Paste Special.
6. Click Paste/Link.
7. In the As box, click Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object or Microsoft
Excel
8. If you change the Excel document, the Word document will reflect that
change.