• To enter the current date in a cell press CTRL ;
• To enter the current time in a cell press CTRL SHIFT ;

To copy the contents of a cell

• To the right of the current cell press CTRL R
• Below the current press CTRL D

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• To view all of the formulas in a spreadsheet press CTRL ~
• To undo the formula display mode, press CTRL ~ again.

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Assume that you have changed the fonts, background color or set some other format feature for a cell or a group of cells. You want to apply the same formatting to another cell or group of cells, but you don't want to replace the contents. The feature FORMAT PAINTER comes to the rescue. The format painter is an icon that looks like a paintbrush. It is located in the cut, copy and paste area of the standard toolbar.

• Highlight or select the cells that you want to copy the format from
• Click on the paintbrush. The mouse pointer should change to a paintbrush
• Select the cell or cells that you want to apply the new format to
• When you release the mouse button, the format will be applied and the mouse pointer will return to normal.

If you want to apply the format to several non-adjacent cells, instead of a single click on the paintbrush icon, double click it. The mouse pointer will stay in the paintbrush mode until you press ESC to cancel.

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The normal syntax for entering a range of cells is to place a colon between the cell references.
Example: =SUM(A1:A9)

You can use a period in place of the colon when entering the range formula. The entry of a period does not require using the shift key. Excel will automatically convert the period to a colon for you.
Example: Enter SUM(A1.A9) and Excel changes it to =SUM(A1:A9)

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As you know, one spreadsheet file can contain several worksheets. The different worksheets are displayed in tabs at the bottom of the screen. The defaults are Sheet1, Sheet2 etc.

Change Name

To change the names of the sheets simple double click on the tab and enter the new name.

More Tab Space

If you have several sheets in one spreadsheet, you will discover that not all of the sheet names are visible. It requires scrolling back and forth to see the different tabs. This is usually caused by the width of the horizontal scroll bar. You can decrease the size of the horizontal scroll bar by

• Placing your mouse on the tab split bar. This is the mark to the left of the horizontal bar.
• When the mouse pointer changes to a right and left arrow, drag the mark to the right to decrease the width of the horizontal scroll bar.

This will provide more space to display the worksheet tabs.

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Do you find yourself typing in the same headings over and over again in different spreadsheets? Headings like the days of the week or months of the year? If so, stop doing all of that typing and learn to use Excel's automatic fill option.

The fill option provides the capability of only having to type the first entry of a series, i.e. Monday, and by a click and drag will automatically fill in the rest of the series, i.e. Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.

Standard Fills

To test the fill feature, start a new worksheet in Excel.

• In cell A1, enter Monday and press ENTER
• Click on the cell A1 to select it
• Move your mouse pointer to the lower right-hand corner. You can tell you have the correct spot when the plus symbol changes to a thin plus symbol
• Now click and drag on the plus symbol, either down or to the right. As you move the mouse, you will automatically see a day of the week displayed.

Depending on the number of cells over which you drag determines how many days of the week you select. If you started with Monday and drag over 7 cells, the last cell will contain Sunday. If you drag over 8 cells, the last cell will contain Monday again. The first cell does not have to be Monday. It can be any day of the week.

This same fill option also works for months of the year. You can also use abbreviated days and months, i.e. Mon or Jan.

Custom Fills

So now what do you do if you have a different series of words you constantly use? For example, let's assume you frequently use the series: Cost, Markup, Sell, Profit. Excel provides a custom feature to let you create your own series.

To set-up our example

• Click on Tools
• Click on Options
• Click on Custom Lists
• Click on NEW LIST
• In the box labeled "List entries", enter Cost and return
• Enter Markup and return
• Enter Sell and return
• Enter Profit and return
• Click on Add
• Click on OK

To test the new series

• Pick a blank cell and enter Cost and return
• Click on the cell to select it
• Move your mouse to the lower right-hand corner and drag down or to the right.

Walla! Did it work? Of course it did, computers never malfunction. If it didn't, re-do the above steps and re-try.

New Fill using Existing Series

You can also create a custom series by using a series of existing cell entries. This saves having to re-type the series. Open the spreadsheet where you have an existing series of frequently used headings.

• Select the heading series
• Click on Tools
• Click on Options
• Click on Custom Lists - Notice that the box labeled "Import list from cells" contains the cell range of the selected series
• Click on Import
• Click on Add
• Click on OK

You did it. It is that simple. So the next time you find yourself typing a series of heading that you frequently use, create a custom fill list. With the amount of time this will save, you will have more time to play your favorite solitaire game.

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Have you ever had a spreadsheet where you wanted to temporarily show selective rows of information based on the criteria of one of the columns? Wow, that sure is a mouthful. Let me try to express this with another example. Let's assume that you have listed sales, costs and profits by month and you only want to display monthly information where the sales were greater than a certain value.

The Data Filter option for Excel very easily provides this capability in addition to several more options. It will be easier to demonstrate how this feature works with some examples.

• First, set-up a spreadsheet with columns of Month, Sales, Costs and Profit.
• Insert data for about 4 rows of information.

This is a very simplified sample and the use of the data filter on such a small set of data is wasted. But, the purpose of this article is to show you how to use the data filter and thus the small set of data should accomplish this task.

Turning on the Data Filter

Now that you have the sample entered, click on Data, Filter and Auto Filter. Turning on the "Auto Filter" places a down arrow box in each "non-blank" column of the first row.

Using the Data Filter

• In the Sales column, click on the down arrow. A list box will appear. You will always have the options of All, Custom, Blank and Non-blank. In addition, each unique value that appears in the selected column will display in the list box.
• Click on Custom. A new dialogue box will appear asking for the custom criteria.
• In the box just below the word Sales, click on the down arrow. Should be an "=" sign in the box
• Select the Option for >=. The >= stands for greater or equal.
• In the box just to the right, enter the a numeric value.
• Click on OK

  Your spreadsheet should only display the lines that have sales greater or equal to the numeric value you entered. Did you lose the other lines? Only temporarily. They are still there but are not displayed because of the current "data filter" that is in effect.

Display All

To re-display all lines, click on the down arrow in the sales box again and select All. Shazam! All the lines are back.

Turning off the Data Filter

To turn off the option, click on Data, Filter and Auto Filter and the down arrow selections will disappear.

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Excel has a feature called pivots that provides a flexible and easy way of viewing the same set of data in several ways. Not only is it easy to set up, it is easy to use. Of course, anything is easy once you understand it. The difficult part, in using pivots, is understanding the concept and how to set it up. After the set-up stage, changing the format and presentation of the data is a snap.

This is a case where it would be simpler to show you, versus trying to explain it in writing. To help make this explanation easy to follow, I am going to deal with a small sample set of data. Once you understand the concept, the amount of data you may work with will not make any difference.

Sample Data

Picture in your mind a traditional report that

• Lists rows of information in columns, such as a sales analysis report that lists the sales
• Has column headings of Month, Sales, Costs and Slsm
• There could be an unlimited number of rows, but a fixed amount of columns
• Assume the report lists the data by salesman and provide totals by salesman

You have a situation where you would like to

• Analyze the data by Month and provide Monthly totals
• Or analyze the report by Total Sales and Costs and provide totals by month

Basically use your imagination as how you want to reorganize, total and sort the data. You could use the old spreadsheet method and sort the data within the columns or rows, but you would have also have to change your total formulas. By using the pivot feature, you simply drag the heading of a column and the data is automatically sorted and totaled for you. It doesn't get any easier.

Set-Up

To start, first enter the data listed below.

Step 1

• Highlight all of the entered values, i.e. the range A1 to D9.
• Click on Data and select the Pivot Table option. A Wizard window will be displayed that will guide you through the set-up process. The option to use Excel list should be checked. Note: That you can also select data from other sources.
• Click on Next.

Step 2

• A new window will display. It should already have a range value of A1 to D9.
• Click on Next.

Step 3

• On the right side of the next window the column names, Month, Sales, Cost and Slsm are displayed.
• Drag the Month field to the area labeled Row.
• Drag the Slsm field to the area labeled Column.
• Drag the Sales and Cost fields to the area labeled Data.
• Click on Next.

Step 4

• In the field "Pivot table starting cell" enter a value that represents an area that is not in use on your spreadsheet. For our example, enter A11.
• Click on Finish. The results should appear as follows.

Notice how the cells for Month, Data and Slsm are shaded. These are the cells that can be dragged to a different cell to create a different presentation of the data.

To experiment, first drag the cell Data to the cell Month. This is the results.

What we have done is grouped all Sales and all Costs together with a breakdown by month.

Let's try another one. Drag the Slsm cell down to the value 100 and you will get the following..

Let's do one more, drag the Slsm cell to the Data cell and you will get this.

There are many other combinations. Experiment, have fun and learn.

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In an Excel spreadsheet, sometimes it is convenient to hide entire rows and columns. You can drill down through the menus or learn to use these shortcuts.

Hide

• Click on a cell in the row or column you want to hide
• For a row - Ctrl+9
• For a column - Ctrl+0

  If you need to unhide, the shortcut is the same with the addition of the shift key.

Unhide

• Select the rows or columns before and after the hidden rows or columns
• For a row - Ctrl+Shift+9
• For a column - Ctrl+Shift+0

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Excel appears to not have an easy method of moving rows or columns without going through a tedious task of inserting, cutting and pasting. There is an easier and quicker way.

• Select the column or row you want to move
• Move your mouse pointer to the edge of the selection until it changes from a cross to a regular pointer arrow. Note: The mouse pointer must be on one of the highlighted cells and not on the row or column headings.
• Hold down the shift key and click and drag the column/row to the new position. A faint "I" bar that runs the entire length of the row or column, along with a box indicating where the new row or column is displayed.
• Release the mouse button before releasing the shift key, and the row or column is moved without overwriting any data.

  Both of these techniques work with Excel versions 95 and 97.

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Did you know that you can add comments to any cell on the spreadsheet? This is handy if you want to provide information to other users of the spreadsheet or even for yourself, if you want to create notes or reminders of why or how you did something.

Adding

• Click on the cell that the comment should be attached to
• Click on Insert, Comments
• Enter your comments
• To exit, click on another cell. This seems goofy, but if you just press ENTER, you add another line to your comment.

  Before you exit, unless you can read very small print, you may want to enlarge the font's point size. Use the standard method to increase the point size. Also, if you are very wordy, you can drag on the corners of the comment box to enlarge. You can also drag the comment window to any position on the spreadsheet. A line is automatically drawn from the comment to the attached cell.

  After adding your comment, you will notice that cell has a red triangle in the upper-right hand corner indicating the cell has a comment.

Viewing

To view the comment, simply move the mouse pointer over the cell. If you want to view all comments all the time, click on View and then Comments.

Deleting

OK, so now you are tired of seeing the red triangle or no longer need the comment.

• Right-click on the cell with the attached comment
• Select Delete comment

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You are working with a large spreadsheet and you need to get to the bottom of the spreadsheet, how do you quickly get there? No, pressing the page down key 725 times is not the correct answer. There are actually two easy methods of jumping to the last filled-in cell in any direction.

Using the Control + Arrow keys

By holding the down the control key and pressing an arrow key in the direction you want to move, Excel will jump to the last filled row or column.

Double-click on border

The other method is to double-click on a cell border in the direction you want to move. Double-click on the bottom of any cell border, and you will jump to the bottom of the spreadsheet.

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When you launch Excel from the Start Menu or a shortcut, Excel opens a new, blank workbook named Book1. If you want Excel to start without a blank document, you can do so by using the /e startup switch.

To add the /e startup switch...

• Right-click the Excel shortcut
• Click on Properties
• Click on the Shortcut tab
• Click in the Target: box
• Press the END key
• Type space /e at the end of the command

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Have you ever tried to find an old spreadsheet and find yourself opening several spreadsheets before you find the right one? There's a way to avoid this time-waster: Create preview pictures. This allows you to see a snapshot of the workbook in Excel's Open dialog box.

To use this feature...

• Open a spreadsheet
• Select File/Properties
• On the Summary tab, check the Save Preview Picture box
  

To see the preview picture when you're searching through files in the Open or Save As dialog boxes...

Click the Preview icon (second icon from the right at the top of the dialog box). When you click on worksheets that have previews, you'll see the snapshot in the preview pane.

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By default, Excel creates three worksheets in every new workbook. If you find that you don't use all three or that you require more, change the default number.

To do so...

• Select Tools from the menu bar
• Click on Options
• Click on the General tab
• Change the number in the Sheets In New Workbook to number of desired sheets

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Often, you'll store numbers that have several decimal places with cells formatted to display only one or two decimal places. In these instances, Excel rounds the displayed result. This is usually fine, but you may find that calculations appear to be off because formulas use the real values, not what you see.

There is a quick and easy way to force Excel to use the values as they appear in the worksheet, but use it with caution. The technique involves using the Precision As Displayed feature, which affects all numbers in the workbook. The conversion is one-way and you won't be able to retrieve the original number value, even if you later disable the Precision As Displayed feature.

To use this feature...

• Choose Tools from the menu bar
• Click on Options
• Click on the Calculation tab
• Check the Precision As Displayed box
• A warning displays that the change is permanent. Simply click OK to commit the change. Note that this setting change applies only to the currently active workbook.

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