FORMULAS AND SHORTCUTS
Five Tips On Speedy Ways To Create Excel^® Spreadsheets And Charts

Contributed by Sheri Graves

When learning Excel, it’s important to cover the basics. You’ll get that in your Excel tutorial, whether you opt for a tutorial through Microsoft® itself, or whether you decide to take a tutorial offered by a recruiting firm, employment agency, computer store or other service. There also are opportunities to take Excel tutorials through companies such as Video Professor.

Once you’ve learned the basics, you’ll be eager for shortcuts, ways to accomplish your desired task using fewer keystrokes or less time. Here is where Internet tipsters come into play. The two most reliable web sites that offer tips on easier and faster ways to use Excel are www.microsoft.com and www.exceltipsvitalnews.com.

Browse the Internet, and you’re sure to come up with other web sites, blogs and even articles such as this one that offer tips to people who are learning Excel.

In reverse order, here is a countdown of five suggestions considered by many to be the top tips in using Excel:

5. Use double-clicking to speed formatting. Invariably, the time will come to import text from one program into another, such as from Microsoft Word or PowerPoint® into Excel. Doing so usually transports the original formatting, too, which can result in a tiny cell with massive formatting. Here’s what to do:

Use the Paste options to either keep the original formatting or to convert it to the formatting you’ve chosen for your cell. First, define the text you want to move, then press Ctrl+C. Then, return to your Excel screen, double-click in the cell, and press Ctrl+V.

4. Freeze a row of titles or categories for reference further down the spreadsheet. Anyone who has ever worked with spreadsheets knows that scrolling down the document eventually leads to a screen that provides all of the rows and columns of information without the top or of titles or categories. Without that top line, it’s easy to forget which column represents what. Here’s what to do:

Use the Freeze Panes function. With your mouse, select the row below or the column to the right of where you want to freeze. On the Window menu, click Freeze Panes.

3. Force line breaks to avoid covering up original data. One problem that plagues new users of Excel is the apparent loss of original data when more information is moved into a cell. It happens when you’ve entered a lot of data into a cell and then move to a new cell and begin entering further data. The original data gets covered up. Here’s what to do:

Click on a cell and type the first line. Then, press Alt+Enter. Now, type the second line, followed by pressing Alt+Enter. For every line added, press Alt+Enter at the end. This function forces line breaks that eliminate the problem of covered-up original data. When you’re finished, press Enter.

2. Convert complex calculations into handy charts. It’s not as difficult as you might think to convert calculations into a pie chart. In this example, the pie chart will show how much of your income you expect to spend on each designated category. Here’s how to do it:

First, enter spending categories in one column, i.e., A1 through A5. Enter projected expenditures for each category in an adjacent column, i.e., B1 through B5.

Then, highlight one of the columns by using the Insert menu. Click Chart, then Pie, then Next and finally, Next again.

Now, select where you want the legend to display by clicking the Titles tab. In the Chart title box, enter your title "Family Budget". Click the Data Labels tab, check the Percentage tab, and then click Next.

Insert the chart into a new sheet or as an object in your existing workbook. You can update your data or change it to actual expenditures, each time changing the chart itself to display, in “pie slice” format, the percentage of your budget represented by each category.

1. Use keyboard shortcuts. If necessary, print out a copy of keyboard shortcuts and post it near your computer screen. Soon, you’ll remember the most frequently used ones by heart and only need to refer to the list for the shortcuts seldom used. Here’s a comprehensive list of what are generally accepted as the best shortcut keys in Excel:

Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+C Ctrl+V Ctrl+X	Copy Paste Cut
Ctrl+F Ctrl+H	Find Find & Replace
Ctrl+P Ctrl+S Ctrl+F4 Alt+F4	Print Save Close Close Excel
Ctrl+Arrow	Move to edge of region
Ctrl+*	Select current region
Ctrl+A	Select all cells
Ctrl+Home Ctrl+End	Select A1 Select last cell in used range
Ctrl+Shift+End	Select from active cell to last cell in used range.
Ctrl+Shift+Home	Select from active cell to A1
Ctrl+Page Down Ctrl+Page Up	Move to the next sheet Move to the previous sheet
Ctrl+Tab	Move to next open workbook
Ctrl+N	Open new workbook
Shift+F11	Insert new worksheet
Shift+F3	Paste function window
Alt+F11	Open VBE
Ctrl+Shift+Enter	Array formula
Ctrl+F3 F3	Define name Paste name
Ctrl+Spacebar Shift+Spacebar	Select columns Select rows
Ctrl+1 Ctrl+B Ctrl+U	Format cells Bold Underline
Ctrl+; Ctrl+shift+:	Current date Current time