100 Excel Tips & Resources

These 100 tips & resources are organized in to the areas,

• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Formulas
• Using Excel to do more
• Charting
• Excel Books for everyone
• Excel Blogs & Resources

All these tips are bite sized and easy to read, digest and implement. The focus is on improving your productivity and making your day better. Wherever possible, I have included links to relevant articles on this site so that you can read and learn more.

25 Very Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

1. To format any selected object, press ctrl+1
2. To insert current date, press ctrl+;
3. To insert current time, press ctrl+shift+;
4. To repeat last action, press F4
5. To edit a cell comment, press shift + F2
6. To autosum selected cells, press alt + =
7. To see the suggest drop-down in a cell, press alt + down arrow
8. To enter multiple lines in a cell, press alt+enter
9. To insert a new sheet, press shift + F11
10. To edit active cell, press F2 (places cursor in the end)
11. To hide current row, press ctrl+9
12. To hide current column, press ctrl+0
13. To unhide rows in selected range, press ctrl+shift+9
14. To unhide columns in selected range, press ctrl+shift+0
15. To recalculate formulas, press F9
16. To select data in current region, press ctrl+shift+8
17. To see formulas in the worksheet, press ctrl+shift+` (ctrl+~)
18. While editing formulas to change the reference type from absolute to relative vice versa, press F4
19. To format a number as currency, press ctrl+shift+4 (ctrl+$)
20. To apply outline border around selected cells, press ctrl+shift+7
21. To open the macros dialog box, press alt+F8
22. To copy value from above cell, press ctrl+’
23. To format current cell with comma formats, press ctrl+shift+1
24. To go to the next worksheet, press ctrl+shift+pg down
25. To go to the previous worksheet, press ctrl+shift+pg up

20 Situations and How to Solve them using Excel Formulas

26. To get the first name of a person, use =left(name,find(” “,name)-1)
27. To calculate mortgage payments, use =PMT(interest-rate,number-of-payments,how-much-loan)
28. To get nth largest number in a range, use =large(range,n)…
29. To get nth smallest number in a range, use = small(range,n)…
30. To generate a random phone number, use =randbetween(1000000000,9999999999), needs analysis toolpak if you are using excel 2003 or earlier…
31. To count number of words in a cell, use =len(trim(text))-len(SUBSTITUTE(trim(text),” “,”"))…
32. To count positive values in a range, use =countif(range,”>0″)…
33. To calculate weighted average, use SUMPRODUCT() function
34. To remove unnecessary spaces, use =trim(text)
35. To format a number as SSN using formulas, use =text(ssn-text,”000-00-0000″)…
36. To find age of a person based on DOB, use =TEXT((NOW()-birth_date)&”",”yy “”years”" m “”months”" dd “”days”"”), output will be like 27 years 7 months 29 days
37. To get name from initials from a name, use IF(), FIND(), LEN() and SUBSTITUTE() formulas…
38. To get proper fraction from a number (for eg 1/3 from 6/18), use =text(fraction, “?/?”)
39. To get partial matches in vlookup, use * operator like this: =vlookup(“abc*”,lookup_range,return_column)
40. To simulate averageif() in earlier versions of excel, use =sumif(range, criteria)/countif(range, criteria)
41. To debug your formulas, select the portions of formula and press F9 to see the result of that portion…
42. To get the file extension from a file name, use =right(filename,3) (doesn’t work for files that have weird extensions like .docx, .htaccess etc.)
43. To quickly insert an in cell micro-chart, use REPT() function…
44. COUNT() only counts number of cells with numbers in them, if you want to count number of cells with anything in them, use COUNTA()
45. Using named ranges in formulas saves you a lot of time. To define one, just select some cells, and go to menu > insert > named ranges > define

15 Excel Tips on Improving Productivity Using Excel

46. To format a number as SSN, use the custom format code “000-00-0000″…
47. To format a phone number, use the custom format code “000-000-0000″…
48. To show values after decimal point only when number is less than one, use [<1]_($#,##0.00_);_($#,##0_) as formatting code…
49. To remove grid lines from excel worksheet, go to menu > tools > options > and un-check grid lines option. (Excel 2007: office button > excel option > advanced)…
50. To hide a worksheet, go to menu > format > sheet > hide…
51. To align multiple objects, like charts, drawings, pictures use drawing toolbar > align and select alignment option…
52. To freeze rows on top, select the a row and use menu > window > freeze panes…
53. To disable annoying formula errors, go to menu > tools > options > error checking tab and disable errors you don’t want to see…
54. To change the shape of cell comments from rectangle to some other symbol, select the comment, go to drawing tool bar and change the shape from there…
55. To transpose a range of cells, copy the cells, go to empty area, and press alt+e+s+e…
56. To save data filter settings so that you can reuse them again, use custom views…
57. To select all formulas, press CTRL+G, select “special” and check “formulas”
58. To select all constants, press CTRL+G, select “special” and check “constants”
59. To clear formats from a range, select menu > edit > clear > “formats”
60. To move a chart and align it with cells, hold down ALT key while moving the chart

9 Charting Tips for Everyone

61. To create an instant micro-chart from your normal chart, use camera tool…
62. Understand  to reduce chart junk, using even a pixel more of ink than what is needed can reduce your chart’s effectiveness
63. Combine two different types of charts when one is not enough, to use, add another series of data to your sheet and then right click on it and change the chart type…
64. To reverse the order of items in a bar / column chart, just click on y-axis, press ctrl+1, and check “categories in reverse order” and “x-axis crosses at maximum category” options
65. To change the marker symbol or bubble in a chart to your own favorite shape, just draw any shape in worksheet using drawing toolbar, then copy it by pressing ctrl+c, now go to the chart and select markers (or bubbles) and press ctrl+v
66. To create partially overlapped column / bar charts, just use overlap and gap settings in the format data series area. A overlap of 100 will completely overlap one series on another, while 0 separates them completely.…
67. To increase the contrast of your chart, just remove grayish background color that excel adds to the chart (in versions excel 2003 and prior)
68. To save yourself some trouble, always try to avoid charts like – 3D area charts (unstacked), radar charts, 3D Lines, 3D Columns with multiple series of data, Donut charts with more than 2 series of data…
69. To improve comparison, replace your radar charts with tables…

6 simple steps for better chart formats

70. Remove any vertical grid-lines
71. Change horizontal grid-line color from black to a very light shade of gray
72. Adjust chart series colors to get better contrast
73. Adjust font scaling (for versions excel 2003 and prior)
74. Add data labels and remove any axis (axis labels) if needed
75. Remove chart background colors

5 Excel books for everyone

76. Excel 2007 Bible by John Walkenbach
77. Excel 2007 Formulas by John Walkenbach
78. Excel 2007 Charts by John Walkenbach
79. Excel 2007 Power Programming with VBA
80. Teach Yourself VISUALLY Excel 2007
PS: Links to Amazon, affiliate code used

20 Excellent Resources and Blogs for getting latest Excel Tips & Charting Ideas

81. PTS Blog
82. Andrew’s Excel Tips
83. Microsoft Excel 2007 Team Blog
84. Contextures
85. Junk Charts
86. Daily Dose of Excel
87. Digital Inspiration
88. Life Hacker
89. Jorge’s Charts Blog
90. DSA Inisights
91. Excel Blog @ TVM Calcs
92. Juice Analytics
93. More information per pixel
94. Newton Excel Bach
95. Presentation Zen
96. Visual Business Intelligence by Stephen Few
97. Cell Matrix
98. Allen Wyatt’s Excel Tips
99. Code for Excel and Outlook
100. All the Popular Excel Bookmarks in Delicious