2 5 V e r y U s e f u l K e y b o a r d S h o r t c u t s

1 . T o f o r m a t a n y s e l e c t e d o b j e c t , p r e s s c t r l + 1
2 . T o i n s e r t c u r r e n t d a t e , p r e s s c t r l + ;
3 . T o i n s e r t c u r r e n t t i m e , p r e s s c t r l + s h i f t + ;
4 . T o r e p e a t l a s t a c t i o n , p r e s s F 4
5 . T o e d i t a c e l l c o m m e n t , p r e s s s h i f t + F 2
6 . T o a u t o s u m s e l e c t e d c e l l s , p r e s s a l t + =
7 . T o s e e t h e s u g g e s t d r o p d o w n i n a c e l l , p r e s s a l t + d o w n a r r o w
8 . T o e n t e r m u l t i p l e l i n e s i n a c e l l , p r e s s a l t + e n t e r
9 . T o i n s e r t a n e w s h e e t , p r e s s s h i f t + F 1 1
1 0 . T o e d i t a c t i v e c e l l , p r e s s F 2 ( p l a c e s c u r s o r i n t h e e n d )
1 1 . T o h i d e c u r r e n t r o w , p r e s s c t r l + 9
1 2 . T o h i d e c u r r e n t c o l u m n , p r e s s c t r l + 0
1 3 . T o u n h i d e r o w s i n s e l e c t e d r a n g e , p r e s s c t r l + s h i f t + 9
1 4 . T o u n h i d e c o l u m n s i n s e l e c t e d r a n g e , p r e s s c t r l + s h i f t + 0
1 5 . T o r e c a l c u l a t e f o r m u l a s , p r e s s F 9
1 6 . T o s e l e c t d a t a i n c u r r e n t r e g i o n , p r e s s c t r l + s h i f t + 8
1 7 . T o s e e f o r m u l a s i n t h e w o r k s h e e t , p r e s s c t r l + s h i f t + ` ( c t r l + ~ )
1 8 . W h i l e e d i t i n g f o r m u l a s t o c h a n g e t h e r e f e r e n c e t y p e f r o m a b s o l u t e t o r e l a t i v e v i c e v e r s a ,
p r e s s F 4
1 9 . T o f o r m a t a n u m b e r a s c u r r e n c y , p r e s s c t r l + s h i f t + 4 ( c t r l + $ )
2 0 . T o a p p l y o u t l i n e b o r d e r a r o u n d s e l e c t e d c e l l s , p r e s s c t r l + s h i f t + 7
2 1 . T o o p e n t h e m a c r o s d i a l o g b o x , p r e s s a l t + F 8
2 2 . T o c o p y v a l u e f r o m a b o v e c e l l , p r e s s c t r l +
2 3 . T o f o r m a t c u r r e n t c e l l w i t h c o m m a f o r m a t s , p r e s s c t r l + s h i f t + 1
2 4 . T o g o t o t h e n e x t w o r k s h e e t , p r e s s c t r l + s h i f t + p g d o w n
2 5 . T o g o t o t h e p r e v i o u s w o r k s h e e t , p r e s s c t r l + s h i f t + p g u p
2 0 S i t u a t i o n s a n d H o w t o S o l v e t h e m u s i n g E x c e l F o r m u l a s

26. Toget thefirstnameofaperson,use=left(name,find(,name)1)

27. Tocalculatemortgagepayments, use=PMT(interestrate,numberofpayments,how
muchloan)
28. Toget nthlargest numberinarange, use=large(range,n)
29. Toget nthsmallestnumberina range, use=small(range,n)
30. Togeneratearandomphonenumber,use=randbetween(1000000000,9999999999),
needs analysis toolpakifyou areusingexcel 2003 orearlier
31. Tocountnumberofwords inacell,use=len(trim(text))len(SUBSTITUTE(trim(text),
,"))
32. Tocountpositivevalues inarange, use=countif(range,>0)
33. Tocalculateweightedaverage, useSUMPRODUCT() function
34. Toremoveunnecessaryspaces,use=trim(text)
35. Toformat anumber as SSNusingformulas,use=text(ssntext,000000000)
36. Tofindageofapersonbased onDOB, use=TEXT((NOW()birth_date)&",yyyears"
mmonths"dddays"),outputwillbelike27 years 7 months 29 days
37. Toget namefrominitialsfromaname,useIF(),FIND(), LEN()andSUBSTITUTE()formulas
38. Toget proper fractionfromanumber(foreg 1/3 from6/18),use=text(fraction,?/?)
39. Toget partialmatches invlookup,use*operatorlikethis:
=vlookup(abc*,lookup_range,return_column)
40. Tosimulateaverageif() inearlierversions ofexcel,use=sumif(range,
criteria)/countif(range, criteria)
41. Todebugyourformulas,select theportionsofformulaandpress F9 to seetheresultof
that portion
42. Toget thefileextensionfromafilename,use=right(filename,3)(doesnt work forfiles
that haveweird extensions like.docx,.htaccessetc.)
43. Toquicklyinsert an incellmicrochart,useREPT()function
44. COUNT()onlycountsnumberofcellswithnumbers inthem,ifyou wantto count
numberofcellswithanythinginthem,useCOUNTA()
45. Usingnamedranges informulas saves you alotoftime. To defineone, justselect some
cells,andgo to menu>insert >named ranges >define
15 Excel Tipson ImprovingProductivity Using Excel

46. Toformat anumber as SSN,usethecustomformat code000000000

47. Toformat aphonenumber,usethecustomformat code0000000000
48. Toshowvalues afterdecimalpointonlywhen numberis lessthan one,use
[<1]_($#,##0.00_);_($#,##0_) as formatting code
49. Toremovegrid lines fromexcel worksheet, go to menu>tools >options>anduncheck
grid lines option. (Excel2007:officebutton>excel option>advanced)
50. Tohideaworksheet, go tomenu>format >sheet >hide
51. Toalignmultipleobjects,likecharts, drawings,pictures usedrawing toolbar>alignand
select alignmentoption
52. Tofreezerows on top,select the arowandusemenu>window>freezepanes
53. Todisableannoyingformulaerrors, go tomenu>tools >options>errorchecking tab
anddisableerrors you dontwanttosee
54. Tochangetheshapeofcellcomments fromrectangleto someothersymbol,select the
comment,go to drawingtoolbarandchangetheshapefromthere
55. Totransposearangeofcells,copythecells,go to emptyarea, andpress alt+e+s+e
56. Tosavedatafiltersettings so thatyou can reusethemagain,usecustomviews
57. Toselect allformulas,press CTRL+G,select specialandcheckformulas
58. Toselect allconstants,press CTRL+G,select specialand checkconstants
59. Toclearformats fromarange, select menu>edit>clear>formats
60. Tomoveachartandalignitwithcells,hold down ALT keywhilemoving thechart
9Charting Tipsfor Everyone

61. Tocreatean instantmicrochartfromyournormalchart, usecamera tool

62. Understand datato inkratio to reducechart junk,usingeven apixelmoreofinkthan
what is needed can reduceyourcharts effectiveness
63. Combinetwo differenttypes ofcharts when oneis notenough,touse,addanother
series ofdatato yoursheet andthenrightclickon itandchangethechart type
64. Toreversetheorder ofitems inabar/ column chart,justclickon yaxis,press ctrl+1,and
checkcategories inreverseorderandxaxis crosses atmaximumcategory options
65. Tochangethemarker symbolorbubbleinachartto yourown favoriteshape, justdraw
anyshapein worksheet usingdrawing toolbar,then copyitbypressingctrl+c,nowgo to the
chartandselect markers (orbubbles)andpress ctrl+v
66. Tocreatepartiallyoverlapped column / barcharts,justuseoverlap andgap settings in
theformat dataseries area. Aoverlap of100 willcompletelyoverlap oneseries on another,
while0 separates themcompletely
67. Toincreasethecontrastofyourchart,justremovegrayish backgroundcolorthatexcel
addsto thechart(inversions excel 2003 andprior)
68. Tosaveyourselfsometrouble, always tryto avoidchartslike3D area charts
(unstacked), radarcharts,3D Lines,3D Columnswithmultipleseries ofdata,Donutcharts
withmorethan 2 series ofdata
69. Toimprovecomparison,replace yourradarcharts withtables
6simple steps for better chart formats

70. Removeanyvertical gridlines

71. Changehorizontalgridlinecolorfromblack to averylightshadeofgray
72. Adjustchartseries colors toget bettercontrast
73. Adjustfontscaling(forversions excel 2003 andprior)
74. Adddatalabels andremoveanyaxis (axis labels)ifneeded
75. Removechartbackgroundcolors