Microsoft Excel Tips and Tricks for Everyday Use

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MS Excel is one of the most used spreadsheet applications and the industry standard. It is useful for amateurs and professionals alike. It provides you a wealth of tools that can assist you immensely with manipulation, analysis, organization, and formatting of data in a spreadsheet. Although heavily used in corporate organizations, financial and research institutions, it is equally powerful for everyday users.

Whether you are a business owner managing inventories, a home user taking care of the household budget or a teacher taking attendance, this spreadsheet will make tasks less tedious and solve many of your problems.

Locking Cells with F4

Sometimes, when you copy formulas in Excel, you need your input cell to adjust or change with the formula, but at times, you don’t. Locking one of your input cells requires you place a dollar sign before the row number and column letter. Punching the dollar sign each time is tedious and a big waste of time. So, here’s the trick, after selecting the relevant cell, press F4 and the dollar sign will be inserted and the cell will be locked.

Random Value Generation

Here is another awesome feature you can use if you want to generate random numbers for any reason. Typing in RAND () function generates random values, ranging from 0 to 1. You don’t have to punch any input, leave the parentheses blank. Moreover, more random numbers will be regenerated when the spreadsheet recalculates and you can trigger the recalculation by pressing F9.

Resize Rows and Columns

The default width and height of a cell in Excel is different from one size fits all. It is highly likely that you will have to modify the row height and column width in order to accommodate all your data. All you have to do is click on the relevant row or column, using the Home tab press the Format button, which is located in the Cells group. Then choose what you want to adjust, the width or height. Next, type in the number and click OK, the relevant row or column will be adjusted to the new measurement.

Use SumIF and CountIF to Summarize Data

CountIF will help you in counting the frequency with which a value appears within a relevant range. Your initial input is the range of value you need to count in. The next input is your criteria, or the value you are seeking. On the other hand, SumIF adds up values or numbers in a given range provided the number in the corresponding range satisfies your addition criteria.

Select All Using a Single Click

Many Excel users are familiar with the Select All command, which is triggered by the Ctrl + A shortcut, but here’s a secret: you can achieve the same results by clicking the corner button just once. You will find it extremely useful in many situations.

Adding Multiples Rows and Columns

Most of us are familiar with adding one new column or row, but adding more than one row or column can become a time wasting exercise if you do this by repeating the process of adding one row or column at a time. Here is the solution you need. You can achieve the same result by dragging and selecting the desired number of columns or rows. Then, by right clicking the relevant rows or columns, choose the Insert command using the dropdown menu. You will see new rows or columns inserted above the row or on the left side of the column that you selected initially, saving you loads of time.

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