Excel Tricks

and tips
Danny Puype
Trainer
danny@puype.com
 Navigation
Selections

Copy
Various
Cut Paste

Charts Formatting

Data Formulas

© Danny Puype – Trainer / Developer

Nav/Selection
 Right click on sheet tabs + Ctrl PgUp/PgDn
 Use range name for big selection with F5
 Make selections with Ctrl/End and arrows
 Ctrl + *
 Change Enter behavior
 Combine Tab & Enter in a list
 Insert Multiple new lines
 Put macro on toolbar – quick access toolbar
 Use of F5 for special selections
 Double click border of cells to move cursor
 Select columnar data with blanks

© Danny Puype – Trainer / Developer

Copy/Cut - Paste
 Paste special – special features like
 Calculations – Transpose - Skip blanks
 Quickly copy sheets, cells etc with Ctrl + drag
 Quickly propagate a structure with group sheets
 Use visible cells only with subtotals / filtered data
 Move columns or cells between other columns or cells
 Filling out data (numbers, dates…) with fixed intervals & series
 Fill Blanks with F5 - Goto blanks and Ctrl-Enter
 Ctrl-D to fill values from row just above
 Double click format painter to copy format multiple times
 Create custom lists
 Ctrl+space: highlight col, then Ctrl + or Ctrl –
 use ALT instead of /
 /IR - /IC - Insert Row/Column
 /EDR - /EDC - Delete Row/Column
 /ORH - /OCH - Hide Row/Column
 /ORU - /OCU - Unhide Row/Column

© Danny Puype – Trainer / Developer

Formatting
 Use styles and customize styles
 Use table styles
 Reset columns & row to autofit properly
 Custom formats with 4 arguments
 Alt + Enter to have text on multiple lines
 Find cells formatted with Find and then
reformat
 Use of theme colors
 Time format beyond 24h - [h]:mm:ss

© Danny Puype – Trainer / Developer

Formulas
 Nest formulas the easy way
 Use simple references to avoid repetition
 Statistics in status bar
 Unknown operators like & and ^
 Calculating time
 Set up 3D formula
 Intersection operator: a space
 F9 to see values behind formula
 Double click formula to debug
 Watch window
 Auto-completed function names and use of tab
 Creating dynamic ranges with offset
 Range names and dynamic ranges with Tables
 Use of wildcard * in formulas: =vlookup(”abc*”;table;col nr; 0)
 Transform conditional outcomes with ++

© Danny Puype – Trainer / Developer

Data
 Autofilter by sample
 Sort on colour
 Use subtotals in filtered data & use of tables
 Insert Currencies from 'Existing Connections'
 Get rid of spaces with text to columns
 Repeat rows when printing
 Compare columns or rows with F5
 Dynamic data with tables
 Alt + Down arrow for a drop down list
 Remove duplicates
 Fill blancs in pivot tables
 Simple reference to cells in pivot tables
 Put Show All records on toolbar (<2007)
© Danny Puype – Trainer / Developer
Charts
 Make a custom chart
 Right click on any of the chart areas
 Create default or custom chart and call it with
Alt-F1
 Add data to graphs with Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V
 Move a chart and align it with cells with ALT
 Quickly change markers in a line chart with any
shape with Ctrl-V
 Make microcharts with rept()
 Quick chart with F11 or Alt-F1 on same sheet
 Add a secondary axis

© Danny Puype – Trainer / Developer

Various
 Create button with print area
 Text to speech
 VBA code for a sheet: right click sheet tab
and View Code
 Pin often used files to recently files menu
 Camera tool (eg to create micro chart)
 Hide certain error/warning messages
 Hide all columns and rows not in use
 Remove icon on toolbar with Alt – drag
(<2007)

© Danny Puype – Trainer / Developer

Shortcuts
 Insert Time / Date - Ctrl + ; / :
 Use of F2 - F3 - F4 – F5 - F11
 Use edit clear all / format on QAT
 Ctrl-pgup –pgdn to nav between sheets
 Ctrl F1 removes ribbon
 Ctrl-Shft +1 = Format Cells
 Alt + = autosum
 Ctrl+Alt+V = Paste Special
 Ctrl when dragging fill handle – for dates: right
mouse on fill handle
 Ctrl-spacebar/Shft-spacebar : select full
column/row

© Danny Puype – Trainer / Developer

Links
 http://www.2013.net/blog/index.php?/site/excel_links/

© Danny Puype – Trainer / Developer