Tip Tuesday-Making Excel Work for You

I am a self-taught excel user - and by no means an expert - but in business we use it everyday for something, and it's a wonder.

The thing is, most of us probably only use a tiny portion of its power (like our brains). Once we learn how to do the few tasks we need to do, we are reluctant to explore any new functions. Just like our discussion of keyboard shortcuts, sometimes just learning one new trick can be a game changer. So here are few of my favorite Excel features:

Auto Sum: Everyone knows this one, right? That little sigma in the top right corner? Simply click to quickly add up a group of highlighted numbers. You can also highlight a section of a column, use the keyboard shortcut ALT +, and the total for those items will pop into the box at the bottom of the column.

Auto Fill: Excel is usually about series and relationships, and it is pretty good at figuring out what you're after. Instead of typing in January, February, March... in a column or row, just start with a day/month/number, grab the little black box on the lower right corner of the cell and drag as far as you like. You can also select how you auto fill. Maybe instead of a series you just want to copy the same stuff into a bunch of cells, or maybe you only want to auto fill weekdays. Simply choose your format by clicking on the blue right angle box that appears next to your auto-filled cells.

Freeze Pane: (I just can't think of this without hearing the J. Giles Band singing Freeze Frame!) When you are working with a large sheet of data, sometimes you want to keep part of it in sight while you scroll through other parts. Most often you'll want to keep your header in view while you scroll down hundreds of rows. Here is an exhaustive review of the possibilities in  Microsoft Excel 2010 or Microsoft Excel 2007.


Conditional Formatting: I'm a visual person, so the more I can differentiate data visually in a sea of tiny cells, the better. When I look at sales reports, I know immediately that those numbers in red require some attention. When you can change the appearance of data based on specific criteria, you can quickly identify data critical to business analysis. This is how to take  advantage of  this feature in Excel 2010 and Excel 2007.


I could go on, but you probably have even better tips. Won't you share them with us?