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Do you know these Excel 2007 Productivity

Secrets (Hint: Coffee is not one of them)
Posted on May 26th, 2009 in Excel Howtos , Learn Excel - 18 comments

Ok, Coffee can be one of them, but may be after the 3rd mug of
the day, you will ask the question, ³so, what x
the
productivity secrets of Excel 2007?´.

That, my friend, is the reason why you should put aside the
mug and read this post carefully. The post is pure filtered
decoction of tips you must sip.



 
  
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Thanks, You are beautiful.

èurn on the Clipboard pane, Copy paste like there is no tomorrow

We all swear by ctrl+c, ctrl+v. A large part of my MBA case studies were submitted intime
thanks only to the awesome clipboard. But do you know that you can turn on the clipboard
feature in Excel 2007 in a full panel view and use it to speed up the copy paste activity.

Hold Down ALè to see what keyboard shortcuts are available, press key and you
will see more
All you have to do is hold the ALT key down. And I can bet that you will learn a fun and simple
keyboard shortcut for something that you use everyday. What more, in Excel 2007 you can use
most of the Excel 2003 (and earlier) keyboard shortcuts.

Lock a feature to Boost up your performance, for eg. lock format painter and
paste formats everywhere

When you need to perform certain action several times, like for eg. if you want to paste the same
formatting over 40 different cells, you can lock the format painter by double clicking on it. See
the screencast to understand how it works.

(When you can inserting shapes etc, you can use ³lock drawing mode´ option from right click
menu)

Make your charts and tables go everywhere, copy them as pictures

When you copy a chart / table of cells as picture, they take less space and look lot better when
pasted.

Add Invisible / Hidden features to your Quick Access èoolbar

You can add hidden features of excel 2007 like camera tool etc. to the quick access toolbar (the
tools that you usually see next to office button). Just click on the office button > Excel options >
Customize and select ³commands not in the ribbon´. These are the features that are not usually
shown on ribbon (some of them are shown when you lets say select a chart or table or something
like that).

Move the Quick Access èoolbar down to save mouse travel time
I think that title says it all. See the image.

Always save the files in Excel 2003-97 compatible mode

Very useful if your colleagues / clients are still using old versions. Just go to Office button >
Excel Options > Save and change the file type to Excel 2003-97.

Click on the corner of a group of Ribbon Icons to launch its UI

This is not applicable for all groups. But for some groups of icons you see a little squarish icon
on the bottom right corner. Just hit it to launch a friendly office 2003ish looking dialog to make
changes to the settings etc.

Add chart related options to Quick Access èoolbar to save time

If you make a lot of charts, then it pays to add the chart related options like ³adding error bars´,
³adding axis´ etc. to the quick access toolbar. Then you can press ALT+number to activate this
feature and work with it without even moving your mouse.

Create a named range quickly by typing the name in the corner of formula bar

You can quickly create a named range by selecting a bunch of cells and typing the name in the
formula bar¶s left hand corner where usually cell address¶ is displayed.

See the screencast.

BONUS: Enable Developer Ribbon èoolbar in Excel 2007

If you in to mochas and trying to explore macros, then this one is for you. Enable the Developer
toolbar from Excel options > Popular and you can play with all those form controls and macros.

Ô MS Excel èips to Make you a Productivity
Guru
Posted on October 16th, 2008 in Featured , Learn Excel - 21 comments

We all like to customize things, to personalize them so that we feel better, faster and smarter
using them. Microsoft Excel is a perfect example of highly customizable software. It is simple to
learn and use, and at the same time it is relatively easy to change the way it works for you.

Here is a list of 15 useful excel tweaks that can make you hyper-productive. Happy Thursday

Ô







 



We all know that when you hit enter on a cell excel usually
takes you to the next cell in that column for editing. But what
if you need to go to next cell in that row? Of course you can
use tab. But you can also customize the cell edit order when
you are typing out that large list of entries so that you need
not change your habits for the software. Just go to Menu >
Tools > Options > Edit tab and set the ³move selection after
enter´ to whatever direction you like.
















Whenever you open a new workbook, excel shows 3 spreadsheets by default. Most of the times
we need one or two of them. And when we are sharing the project plan or sales report (or
whatever else the excel file has) with colleagues, we remove the other 2 sheets. You can save the
trouble by telling excel to create only one sheet by default and let you add more if you need it. In
Menu > Tools > Options > General Tab change the ³sheets in new workbook´ from 3 to 1.


 



 




 




Each one of us have our own favorite fonts. I like Verdana better than Arial. May be you like
Georgia compared to Arial. But when you set out to create that gantt chart for your new project
you have to manually change the font from Arial to Georgia everytime. No longer. Tell excel to
change the default font from Arial to your favorite. In Menu > Tools > Options > General Tab
set the ³Standard font´ to what you like. You can set the font size as well.

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Excel has few built-in lists that it uses for auto-filling cells when you drag that little pointer
across. For eg. you can write Monday in 1st cell, Tuesday in 2nd cell and select these two and
drag that over the next few cells by clicking in the corner and excel would fill rest of the
weekdays in that range. This is a very useful feature. But what if you do repetitive typing your
company products or annual holidays ? Of course you can tell excel to use your own lists for
auto-fills. Just go to Menu > Tools > Options > Custom Lists and add your own lists by typing
them or pointing to a location where they are.

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Excel (2003 and earlier) has a limitation of 56 colors. We all have been living with that for a
while now. But what if you need to tweak the colors to suit your company¶s color scheme
without spending too much time on it. Simple. Just change the colors for the current workbook
by going to Menu > Tools > Options > Color and define your own RGB values for each of the
colors. Alternative you can try this hack to get more colors in your charts.

 

 





 

Excel¶s number formatting is pretty intelligent. It can get your country locale information from
the system you are using and thus format the numbers (the thousands separators symbol and
decimal point symbol) based on that. This is a very useful feature since you dont have to worry
how the numbers are shown. But what if you are in US but your reports needs to show numbers
according to some other country¶s format? You can change the thousands separator and decimal
point symbols to suit your preference. In the Menu > Tools > Options > International Tab,
uncheck the ³use system separators´ and enter your own.

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Excel¶s formula error checking options are both useful

and annoying. For eg. Excel would tell me if there is an
³inconsistent formula in region´. Very useful feature to
spot omissions. But what if you already know what you
are doing and you need to omit few cells in that region
in that formula? Still excel would bug you to correct that
error. It may be better to turn off this error checking
option that silence it every time. Go to Menu > Tools >
Options > Error Checking Tab and uncheck error
checking rules that you don¶t want excel to apply.

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We have come to rely on features like spell check, undo, auto correct so much that our
productivity would drop 50% if these features were to vanish tomorrow. But do you know that
you can use auto-correct feature to be even more productive? You can set your own auto correct
rules in Excel (Word, PowerPoint as well) and this little tweak can help you reduce typing. For
eg. while writing blog posts I often write PHD to convey Pointy Haired Dilbert. Instead of
actually typing Pointy Haired Dilbert every time, I can define an auto-correct rule that says
replace PHD with Pointy Haired Dilbert. Imagine how much of typing you can reduce by
defining simple replacements for several day to day words you type. Define your own auto
correct rules in Menu > Tools > Auto Correct Options > Auto Correct Tab.

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One of the smart features of MS Office is that the menus learn what options you use often and
show only them when you click on the menu. But this gets in the way of being productive if your
work involves using various options all the time. Fortunately you can turn off this feature and tell
Excel (and other office apps) to show Full menus always. Just go to Menu > Tools > Customize
> Options Tab and check ³Always show full menus´ option.

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Whenever you are sharing the workbooks with colleagues either through mail or by uploading to
a server, it is recommended to keep the size of workbooks low in order to let the receivers
quickly get the file. Sometimes excel files can be very huge depending on the number of sheets
and formulas you have used. There is one trick to reduce the size of excel files with images. You
can tell excel to compress the images for web viewing. This will force saving the images at lower
resolution of 96dpi instead of standard 200dpi. In the Menu > File > Save As dialog box, click
on ³Compress pictures´ option and adjust the resolution in the ³change resolution´ area.
ÔÔ
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Often when you are working on spreadsheets with lots of formulas it can be a bit inconvenient to
have excel recalculate every formula at each key stroke. Especially if the formulas involve a
large range then excel can take quite a while to perform the calculations hogging system
resources. Of course there is a way to force excel to calculate formulas when you choose to (by
hitting F9). In Menu > Tools > Options > Calculation tab set the calculation to Manual or
Automatic except for tables.

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Every organization / individual has their own tastes on how a status report, project plan, gantt
chart or grade table should look like. And often we spend hours touching up that spreadsheet /
document to make sure it complies with standard styles / fonts / layouts. There is a simple work
around that could reduce the time spent on formatting in Excel. Next time you make a project
plan, save it as a template and use it whenever you need a project plan and edit the stuff you need
to. Saves time for other nicer things like.. mmm, sipping coffee or reading Pointy Haired Dilbert.

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Ok, this is pretty common, we design charts, tables in Excel and then paste them in to
PowerPoint. But somehow the formatting is not preserved or the file is too huge. Here is a simple
hack that you may already know. Use paste special whenever you are pasting the charts / tables
to PowerPoint / word or outlook and select ³enhanced meta file´ option. This makes sure you
have a good quality chart that looks slick when projected (or printed) while taking up less space.

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Often when you make a spreadsheet about that vacation plan or to share party expenses and send
it to others you may want to remove your personal information from the excel file, just to make
sure the file is harmless even if it is posted on the cloud. In Menu > Tools > Options > Security
tab, check the ³Remove personal information from file properties on save´ to make sure your
company name, last name etc. are removed from the excel file properties.

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Finally, how would you like your own

menu with your own shortcuts ? This can
be super-productive if you spreadsheet a
lot and need to access all those nifty
features with one click. Here is a clue on
how to get your own menus. Go to Menu >
Tools > Customize > Commands Tab and
add your menu to the list. How? That is your home work. After all you are a spreadsheet
customization guru now.

That is all. So go ahead and tweak that spreadsheet software and have fun in all the time you
have just saved.

2 Very Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

1. èo format any selected object, press ctrl+1

2. èo insert current date, press ctrl+;
3. èo insert current time, press ctrl+shift+;
4. èo repeat last action, press F4
5. èo edit a cell comment, press shift + F2
6. èo autosum selected cells, press alt + =
7. èo see the suggest drop-down in a cell, press alt + down arrow
8. èo enter multiple lines in a cell, press alt+enter
9. èo insert a new sheet, press shift + F11
10. èo edit active cell, press F2 (places cursor in the end)
11. èo hide current row, press ctrl+9
12. èo hide current column, press ctrl+0
13. èo unhide rows in selected range, press ctrl+shift+9
14. èo unhide columns in selected range, press ctrl+shift+0
15. èo recalculate formulas, press F9
16. èo select data in current region, press ctrl+shift+8
17. èo see formulas in the worksheet, press ctrl+shift+` (ctrl+~)
18. While editing formulas to change the reference type from absolute to relative vice versa,
press F4
19. èo format a number as currency, press ctrl+shift+4 (ctrl+$)
20. èo apply outline border around selected cells, press ctrl+shift+7
21. èo open the macros dialog box, press alt+F8
22. èo copy value from above cell, press ctrl+¶
23. èo format current cell with comma formats, press ctrl+shift+1
24. èo go to the next worksheet, press ctrl+shift+pg down
25. èo go to the previous worksheet, press ctrl+shift+pg up

20 Situations and How to Solve them using Excel Formulas

26. èo get the first name of a person, use =left(name,find(´ ³,name)-1)

27. èo calculate mortgage payments, use =PMT(interest-rate,number-of-payments,how-much-
loan)
28. èo get nth largest number in a range, use =large(range,n)« Get Full Tip
29. èo get nth smallest number in a range, use = small(range,n)« Get Full Tip
30. èo generate a random phone number, use =randbetween(1000000000,9999999999), needs
analysis toolpak if you are using excel 2003 or earlier« Get Full Tip
31. èo count number of words in a cell, use =len(trim(text))-len(SUBSTITUTE(trim(text),´
³,´"))« Get Full Tip
32. èo count positive values in a range, use =countif(range,´>0Ǝ)« Get Full Tip
33. èo calculate weighted average, use SUMPRODUCT() function
34. èo remove unnecessary spaces, use =trim(text)
35. èo format a number as SSN using formulas, use =text(ssn-text,´000-00-0000Ǝ)« Get Full
Tip
36. èo find age of a person based on DOB, use =TEXT((NOW()-birth_date)&´",´yy ³´years´"
m ³´months´" dd ³´days´"´), output will be like 27 years 7 months 29 days
37. èo get name from initials from a name, use IF(), FIND(), LEN() and SUBSTITUTE()
formulas« Get Full Tip
38. èo get proper fraction from a number (for eg Ô/3 from 6/Ô
), use =text(fraction, ³?/?´)
39. èo get partial matches in vlookup, use * operator like this:
=vlookup(´abc*´,lookup_range,return_column)
40. èo simulate averageif() in earlier versions of excel, use =sumif(range,
criteria)/countif(range, criteria)
41. èo debug your formulas, select the portions of formula and press F9 to see the result of that
portion« Get Full Tip
42. èo get the file extension from a file name, use =right(filename,3) (doesn¶t work for files
that have weird extensions like .docx, .htaccess etc.)
43. èo quickly insert an in cell micro-chart, use REPT() function« Get Full Tip
44. COUNè() only counts number of cells with numbers in them, if you want to count
number of cells with anything in them, use COUNTA()
45. Using named ranges in formulas saves you a lot of time. èo define one, just select some
cells, and go to menu > insert > named ranges > define

Ô Excel èips on Improving Productivity Using Excel

46. èo format a number as SSN, use the custom format code ³000-00-0000Ǝ« Get Full Tip
47. èo format a phone number, use the custom format code ³000-000-0000Ǝ« Get Full Tip
48. èo show values after decimal point only when number is less than one, use
[<1]_($#,##0.00_);_($#,##0_) as formatting code« Get Full Tip
49. èo remove grid lines from excel worksheet, go to menu > tools > options > and un-check
grid lines option. (Excel 2007: office button > excel option > advanced)« Get Full Tip
50. èo hide a worksheet, go to menu > format > sheet > hide« Get Full Tip
51. èo align multiple objects, like charts, drawings, pictures use drawing toolbar > align and
select alignment option« Get Full Tip
52. èo freeze rows on top, select the a row and use menu > window > freeze panes« Get Full
Tip
53. èo disable annoying formula errors, go to menu > tools > options > error checking tab and
disable errors you don¶t want to see« Get Full Tip
54. èo change the shape of cell comments from rectangle to some other symbol, select the
comment, go to drawing tool bar and change the shape from there« Get Full Tip
55. èo transpose a range of cells, copy the cells, go to empty area, and press alt+e+s+e« Get
Full Tip
56. èo save data filter settings so that you can reuse them again, use custom views« Get
Full Tip
57. èo select all formulas, press CTRL+G, select ³special´ and check ³formulas´
58. èo select all constants, press CTRL+G, select ³special´ and check ³constants´
59. èo clear formats from a range, select menu > edit > clear > ³formats´
60. èo move a chart and align it with cells, hold down ALT key while moving the

Excel can be Exciting ± Ô fun things you can
do with your spreadsheet in less than
seconds
Posted on August 1st, 2008 in All Time Hits , Featured , Learn Excel , hacks , ideas - 60
comments

Who said Excel takes lot of time / steps do something? Here is a list of Ô incredibly fun things
you can do to your spreadsheets and each takes no more than 5 seconds to do.

Happy Friday

Ô. Change the shape / color of cell comments

Just select the cell comment, go to draw menu in bottom left corner of the screen, and choose
change auto shape option, select a 32 pointed star or heart symbol or a smiley face, just wow
everyone

2. Filter unique items from a list

Select the data, go to data > filter > advanced filter and check the ³unique items´ option.

3. Sort from Left to Right

What if your data flows from left to right instead of top to bottom. Just change the sort
orientation from ³sort options´ in the data > sort menu.

4. Hide the grid lines from your sheets

Go to Options dialog in tools menu, uncheck the ³grid lines´ option to remove gridlines from
your worksheets. You can also change the color of grid line from here (not recommended)

. Add rounded border to your charts, make them look smooth

Just right click on the chart, select format chart option, in the dialog, check the ³rounded
borders´. You can even add a shadow effect from here.

6. Fetch live stock quotes / company research with one click

Just enter the stock symbol (MSFT, GOOG, AAPL etc.) in a cell, alt+click on the cell to launch
³research pane´, select stock quotes to see MSN Money quotes for the selected symbol. You can
fetch company profiles in the same way. Learn more.

7. Repeat rows on top when printing, show table headers on every page
When you are on the sheet view, just hit menu > file > page setup, go to the last tab, specify
³rows to repeat´. You can ³repeat columns while printing´ as well from the same menu.

. Remove conditional formatting / all formatting with one click

Just go to Menu > Edit > Clear > All to remove all the formatting from selected cell / range.

9. Auto sum cells with one click

Select a bunch of cells and click on the Sigma symbol on the standard tool bar. Alternatively you
can use Alt+= keyboard shortcut.

Ô0. Find width of a column with formula, really!

Just use ë
 

to find the width of the column to which that formula cell belongs.
Width is returned as the nearest integer.

ÔÔ. Find total working days between any two dates, including holidays
If you work on project plans, gantt charts alot, this can be totally handy. Just type
ë
  


—
— 

to fetch the number of working
days. In the above sample you can see the number of working days between New years day and
September first of this year (labor day).

Ô2. Freeze Rows / Columns in your sheet, Show important info even when
scrolling

Select the cell diagonally beneath the row / columns you want to freeze (for eg. if you wan to
freeze row 1&2 and columns A&B, click in C3), go to menu > window and click on freeze
panes.

Ô3. Split sheets in to two, compare side by side to be more productive

Just click on this little vertical bar on the bottom right corner of the sheet (see below) and drag it
to create a vertical split. You can do the same way for a horizontal split as well

Ô4. Change the color of various sheet name tabs

Right click on sheet and select ³Tab color´ option to change the worksheet tab colors. Group
them with similar colors if you have lot of sheets, it looks nice.

Ô . Insert a quick organization chart

Click on menu > insert > diagram to open the above dialog, just select the organization chart
option, enter node values and you have a pretty organization chart. Alternatively learn how to
create org charts in excel.
So what do you say now? Isn¶t Excel Exciting?