Excel Productivity Guide
Excel Productivity Guide
This pdf contains good to know tips and tricks about Microsoft Excel . They are structured in step by
step tutorials so you can easily follow along.
There are also short introductions to the most important featues in Excel like pivot tables, vba
macros, conditional formatting, data validation, excel tables.
On the next page you will find table of contents. It will help you navigate this pdf.
Table of Contents
1
4.2
5.2
6.2
6.3
6.4
8.2
8.3
8.4
Keyboard shortcuts........................................................................................................................ 31
9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
9.5
9.6
9.7
10
11
Excel formulas............................................................................................................................ 39
11.1
Evaluate formula.................................................................................................................... 39
11.2
11.3
11.4
11.5
11.6
11.7
Autosum ................................................................................................................................ 47
11.8
12
13
14
Formatting ................................................................................................................................. 51
14.1
14.2
14.3
14.4
Double click format painter to copy and paste formats to other cells .................................. 56
14.5
Create a hyperlink.................................................................................................................. 57
15
15.1
15.2
15.3
Quickly hide and unhide a column or a row using a keyboard shortcut ............................... 61
15.4
15.5
15.6
15.7
15.8
16
16.1
16.2
16.3
17
17.1
18
18.1
4. Click OK
Now this comes up:
This PivotTable Field List lets you choose fields to your report.
1. Drag Item to column labels
2. Drag Price to Values
3. Drag Company name to row labels
You can now analyze the data more easily. Try rearranging the fields in the pivotTable Field List and
explore! You can also use dates or categories or whatever. Analyzing data is not that hard anymore!
How to analyze trends? Link to a post on my website: Analyze trends using pivot tables
If you change values in the table, the pivot tables does not automatically update the values. You need
to right click on the pivot table and click Refresh. You can do this automatically with the use of vba
(visual basic for applications)
Automatically refresh a pivot table? Link to a post on my website:
How to create a dynamic pivot table and refresh automatically
2 Conditional formatting
By applying conditional formatting to your data, you can easily spot differences in a range of values.
Conditional formatting highlights data using colors or icons.
Example,
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
9. Pick a color.
10. Click OK
11. Click OK
3. Click the arrow in the column header to choose a filter for the column
4. Here you can choose to sort values or only show all records containing Alba. If you have large
data sets, use the search field!
4 Data Validation
4.1 Data Validation
What is data validation? You can control what is being entered in a worksheet. If a user enters data
that is not allowed, a warning message appears.
You can create drop down lists or data validation lists (they are the same), you can restrict entries or
create your own rules.
Example drop down lists
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Select cell B3
Go to tab Data on the ribbon
Click Data validation button
Go to tab Settings
Select List (see pic above)
Type: =$E$3:$E$8 in source field
Click OK
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
4. Enter a name
5. In the Refers to: you can:
a. Select a cell or a
b. cell range or
c. type a formula
d. Type a constant
6. Click OK
How to use a named range
1. Start typing the named range and it shows up in the cell or the formula bar
Select a cell
Press F4
The Paste Name dialog box shows up.
Select a name
5. Click OK
1.
2.
3.
4.
Here I created a named range (Name). You can see that it refers to Sheet1!$B$3:$B$4.
Here I changed the cell reference to a formula. Now the named range automatically expands when
you add or remove data.
Formula:
=Sheet1!$B$3:INDEX(Sheet1!$B:$B,COUNTA(Sheet1!$B:$B)+1)
Why use dynamic named ranges when you can use excel tables? It is a matter of personal preference.
I think it is easier to setup (select data and press Ctrl + T) and use excel tables.
But using table names is not always so easy, for example you need a workaround to use excel table
names in conditional formatting or data validation (See excel tables). Also, if you are not used to how
to reference table names in formulas, they can sometimes be confusing.
Excel 2010
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
4. Change column width for a column, click and hold on a column line.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Go to tab Developer
Click Stop recording button
Click Visual basic button or press Alt + F11
Examine the code
You create subroutines (macros) and custom functions or user defined functions in a module.
6. Click OK
You can also
1.
2.
3.
4.
9 Keyboard shortcuts
9.1 Press Alt key to see available keyboard short cuts
Example, here is a picture of the ribbon.
Each button on the tab Insert is assigned a character. For example, press V to build a pivot table.
You can also hover over a button on the ribbon and in most cases the keyboard shortcut is shown.
Hovering over Table button displays this window and it tells you that you can press CTRL + T to create
a table.
1. Select cell A2
2. Press Ctrl + arrow down key
You are instantly taken to the cell above the next empty cell. If there are no empty cells you will be
taken to the last cell in the data set.
There is a blank cell in this example.
2. or select a cell in column you want to select and then press CTRL + Space
Select entire row
You have two options:
1. Click on row number
2. or select a cell in row you want to select and then press Shift + Space
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@
#
$
%
^
&
*
Ctrl
Ctrl
Ctrl
Ctrl
Ctrl
Ctrl
Ctrl
Ctrl
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Shift
Shift
Shift
Shift
Shift
Shift
Shift
Shift
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1
2
3
4
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6
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11 Excel formulas
11.1
Evaluate formula
Evaluate formula dialog allows you to debug a formula by evaluating each part of the formula
individually.
1. Go to tab Formulas on the ribbon
2. Click Evaluate Formula button
3. Click Evaluate button to see each part of the formula individually. (See pic below)
The formula in cell B2 returns an error. The Evaluate formula dialog allows you to examine the
formula to see why it returns an error.
11.2
Entering cell references in a formula is a common task but did you know that you can easily convert
the relative cell reference by pressing F4?
Example,
The column reference is locked. Press F4 again and the cell reference becomes relative again.
Want to know more about relative and absolute cell references? Check out my blog post:
Absolute and relative references in excel
11.3
3. Press F9
11.4
The picture below shows some names in cell range B3:B12, there are also blank cells. Lets fill those
blank cells with a character.
4. Click Blanks
5. Click OK
11.5
11.6
The CONCATENATE function lets you concatenate values but with on big disadvantage. You cant use a
cell range as an argument. You have to enter each cell reference, see picture below.
Here is a workaround:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
11.7
Autosum
4. Press Enter
11.8
If you want to copy the value and paste it to another cell, copy paste wont work if you have a
formula in the cell.
Instructions
1.
2.
3.
4.
13 Transpose a table
The two pictures below demonstrate a data set being transposed.
Instructions
1.
2.
3.
4.
14 Formatting
14.1
In the picture to the left, the first row is formatted. Lets copy the formatting to the remaining rows.
1. Select the two first rows, cell range A1:C2.
2. Right click and hold on black dot (See picture above, to the right)
3. Drag down to row 16.
14.2
The following formula in cell D3 counts how many non empty values there are in cell range B3:B20.
But you dont want to show the cell and the calculation to the user.
3. Select Custom
4. Type ;;;
5. Click OK
The value is hidden but still there!
14.3
1. Select cell
2. Press CTRL + 1
14.4
Double click format painter to copy and paste formats to other cells
The format painter allows you to copy formatting from one place and apply it to another.
Double click to apply the same formatting to multiple places in the document.
14.5
Create a hyperlink
Navigate to a file or Web page that you plan to create in the future
Instructions
1. Right click on a cell
2. Click Hyperlink
3. Enter address
4. Press OK
TIP! Keyboard short cut: Ctrl + K
Read more: Create, select, edit, or delete a hyperlink
Edit a cell
Pressing F2 places the insertion point after the active cells content.
On the other hand, double clicking on a cell allows you to choose where the insertion point is being
placed.
15.2
1. Select the columns (Use Ctrl + mouse to select multiple non adjacent columns)
2. Click and drag the column border to the right or left
15.3
2. Press CTRL + 9
15.4
Undo command
15.5
You can quickly select these cells by pressing CTL + Shift + o (not zero)
15.6
Copy
1.
2.
3.
Cut
1.
2.
3.
Paste
1.
2.
15.7
If you have a lot of data in one cell, it can be helpful to use new rows inside the cell.
Here is how to do it:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Select a cell
Type whatever you want to type
Press Alt + Enter to enter a new row in the cell
Repeat step 2 and 3
Lastly, press Enter
15.8
You can use the Find functionality in excel to quickly select multiple cells. In this example I am going
to select all cells containing to and delete those cells.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5. Click Close
6. Press Delete
Shortcut key Shift + F11 allows you to insert a new sheet. You can also click this button:
Keyboard short cut CTRL + Page Down navigates to the next sheet in the list at the bottom of the
screen.
16.2
You can quickly rename a sheet by double clicking the sheet name at the bottom of the screen.
16.3
This tip is great if you want to see different parts of the same sheet (or workbook) at the same time.
Go to tab View on the ribbon
Click New window
17 Excel charts
17.1
This technique allows you to group chart categories like months into years.
Look at this chart.
The dates on the x-axis are hard to read. Now, add a new column Year and change the x-axis values
in the chart so they include the new column. Make sure the months are sorted and that only the first
record contains the year. This is what you get:
Here you can see that the year column only contains a single unique year value. If you have multiple
year values you will get duplicates in the chart.
It is a lot more readable now and nicer!
Instructions
1. Right click on chart
2. Click Select Data
4. Click OK!
18 Ribbon
18.1
The ribbon is collapsed. Double click again or press CTRL + F1 to show the ribbon.