Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Tricks & Tips For Those Using Microsoft Excel

By Frankline Bell


If you have Microsoft Office installed on your home computer, this means you have a copy of Microsoft Excel. This is a highly versatile program offering more than for its user than simply being a program for data entry. It is an excellent accounting tool; you can use it to create budgets and calendars, as well as for planning and many other tasks. While you might not be aware of some of the basic features, read on to discover a few helpful tricks and shortcuts.

Highlighting data is something we often have to do, especially if you need to cut and paste or copy and paste the data. To highlight quickly, tap into the first cell of a row and just hit your shift and spacebar. The whole row will highlight and you can copy or cut the data.

When you need more that a single row or column highlighted and you need the whole spreadsheet, this is easy as well. Go up to the first cell and click. Now you hit the key at the top of your keyboard marked F8. Then you scroll down to the very last cell of data and click inside it. This will highlight your whole spreadsheet. If you just want to highlight one column, you begin by clicking the first cell in the column and then click the last cell in that column rather than clicking the first and last cells in the entire spreadsheet. To stop this particular function, simply tap that F8 key again.

You might have noticed that once you move beyond row 38 in excel, that you can no longer see the first row of data. As this is your header, it can be difficult to continue entering data when you can't see for what each column has been designated. Keeping a header in place is a helpful tool for those using Excel.

You can create a second header that will appear all of the time. Go over to the right edge and find the scroll bar for the spreadsheet. Above that is an up arrow or triangle that is filled in, and above that is a box with a line in it. Place your cursor over this box and wait until the cursor looks like two up and down arrows with two lines in between arrows. Click and hold and a dark line will appear. Move this arrow down slightly and slowly and you will see a second header appear. Release the mouse and this header will stay in place and you will be able to see it the whole time you enter data, even after row 38.

Microsoft Excel offers hundreds of short-cuts and functions, including the ability sort data or filter data. To sort, you can go up to the Sort & Filter function on the Home tab. This allows you to sort alphabetically, reverse alphabetically or to create your own custom sort. You also can place a filter in order to view just one set of data at a time. The best way to learn about all of the functions of Excel is to click on the question mark in the blue circle that is located on the top right corner of your Excel spreadsheet. From here, you will be linked to the Excel Help system. You can ask questions, learn keyboard shortcuts and more.




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