The Quick and Handy Excel Tip Guide for Beginners and Pros

Excel

More than ever, employers look for skills in Microsoft Excel as an integral part of any corporate job description. Whether you use it in the workplace or at home, Excel can be a powerful tool that can make your life much easier if you know how to use it.

Want to learn more about Excel, but do not know where to begin? Start with an Excel tip listed here to expand your knowledge of the software.

Use Format Painter

Format painter is one of the easiest excel secrets, and it makes formatting your spreadsheets a lot simpler. If you want to copy the font, style, or other aspects of a cell, simply click the format painter brush, then drag it over to the desired cells for matching formatting.

Another reason format painter is a great tool is because it saves you time and creates consistency in your spreadsheets. You will not have to worry about adjusting every visual element or formula when it is directly copied from other cells.

Learn Essential Formulas

To become fluent in Excel, you should memorize some of the most common formulas you will use in your everyday life. Some of the easiest formulas to learn are sums, percentages, averages, and trim.

Once you learn the formulas, you will be able to remember them easily for future use. One of the best tricks to Excel is using formulas to cut down on your manual work within the program.

Memorize Common Shortcut Keys

Often it is easier to navigate around Excel through keyboard shortcuts rather than with your computer mouse. Using shortcuts to cut, copy, paste, merge, and transpose cells can help you learn how to use Excel properly without much effort.

Make sure to commit the most used keyboard shortcuts to memory first, so you can save yourself time in the long run.

Freeze Your Headers

One of the best Excel secrets is freezing headers, or the top row of a spreadsheet. You can simply use the Freeze Header function to make sure you can still see your column headers when scrolling through your spreadsheet.

This will save you the time it takes to scroll back up and remember what the column headers look like.

Excel Files in Other Programs

A good lesson on how to use Excel properly is by learning how to write Excel files in other programming languages. For example, using C# write to Excel file means that you can code the Excel file directly into your C# language.

By teaching yourself how to code Excel files by hand, you will be able to insert an Excel spreadsheet into many different programs. Even though it may be a learning curve, this is a valuable skill that will be beneficial to you in the future.

Never Miss an Excel Tip

Learning how to use Excel shouldn’t be intimidating. With an Excel tip or two, you will master the software in no time.

Want to learn more tricks on how to use spreadsheets more effectively? Take a look at our blog for all of the information you will need.