Learn Excel tricks

1. By:
Ankur Chaturvedi

2. Pivot
Tables
Charts
Data Validation,
Filters
Macro
Recording
References-
Circular or Relative
Common
Functions used

3. MICROSOFT EXCEL
• Microsoft Excel was released in 1985 and has
grown to become arguably the most important
computer program in workplaces around the
world.
• From the viewpoint of the employer, particularly those in
the field of information systems, the use of Excel as an
end-user computing tool is essential. Not only are many
business professionals using Excel to perform everyday
functional tasks in the workplace, an increasing number
of employers rely on Excel for decision support.

4. Steria Confidential
• EXCEL IS A SPREADSHEET PROGRAM THAT ALLOWS YOU TO STORE, ORGANIZE, AND ANALYZE INFORMATION.
• THE EXCEL INTERFACE:
o SPREADSHEET
o WORKBOOK
o WORKSHEET
o QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR
o NAME BOX
o FORMULA BAR
o COLUMN
o ROW
o RIBBON
o PAGE VIEW
WHAT IS EXCEL ??

5. Toolbars and Task Panes in Excel
Down in the
status bar you
can instantly
see the sum,
count, and
average of any
numbers you
highlight.

6. Keyboard Shortcuts
What
•Allows you to navigate
excel and perform tasks
much quicker than when a
mouse has to be involved.
Why
•Learning the Keyboard
shortcuts will drastically
improve your efficiency
when working in excel
New file Ctrl + N
Open file Ctrl + O
Save file Ctrl + S
Move between open
workbooks
Ctrl + F6
Close file Ctrl + F4
Save as F12
Display the print menu Ctrl + P
Select whole spreadsheet Ctrl + A
Select column Ctrl + Space
Select row Shift + Space
Undo last action Ctrl + Z
Redo last action Ctrl + Y
Exit Excel Alt + F4
Spell Check F7
Cut Ctrl + X
Copy Ctrl + C
Paste Ctrl + V
Find text Ctrl + F
Recalculate F9
General
Move to next cell in row Tab
Move to previous cell in row Shift + Tab
Up one screen Page Up
Down one screen Page Down
Move to next worksheet Ctrl + Page Down
Move to previous worksheet Ctrl + Page Up
Go to first cell in data region Ctrl + Home
Go to last cell in data region Ctrl + End
Data Region Left Ctrl + Left Arrow
Data Region Right Ctrl + Right Arrow
Data Region Down Ctrl + Down Arrow
Data Region Up Ctrl + Up Arrow
Select Whole Data Region Ctrl + Shift + 8
Move to Next Sheet Ctrl + Page Down
Move to Prior Sheet Ctrl + Page Up
Access Drop down menu
Alt + Down/Up
Arrow
Zoom in / out
Ctrl + mouse
scroll
Navigating

7. Bold toggle for selection Ctrl + B
Italic toggle for selection Ctrl + I
Underline toggle for
selection
Ctrl + U
Strikethrough for selection Ctrl + 5
Change the font Ctrl + Shift + F
Change the font size Ctrl + Shift + P
Apply outline borders Ctrl + Shift + 7
Remove all borders Ctrl + Shift + Underline
Wrap text in same cell Alt + Enter
Formatting Text In Worksheet
Format cells Ctrl + 1
Select font Ctrl + Shift + F
Select font size Ctrl + Shift + P
Format as number Ctrl + Shift + 1
Format as date Ctrl + Shift + 3
Format as currency Ctrl + Shift + 4
Format as percentage Ctrl + Shift + 5
Formatting Cells
Delete one character to right Delete
Delete one character to left Backspace
Edit active cell F2
Cancel cell entry Escape Key
Editing/Deleting Text
Select entire worksheet Ctrl + A
Select entire row Shift + Spacebar
Select entire column Ctrl + Spacebar
Manual select Shift + Arrow Key
Highlighting Cells
Auto sum a range of cells Alt + Equals Sign
Insert the date Ctrl + ; (semi-colon)
Insert the time Ctrl + Shift + ; (semi-colon)
Insert columns/rows Ctrl + Shift + + (plus sign)
Insert a new worksheet Shift + F11
Inserting Text Automatically

8.  PRACTICE :
Exercise 1and Exercise 2:- Hold down the "ctrl" key and press the arrow keys to move to the
end of a continuous block of data
Exercise 3 : Hold down the shift + "ctrl" and press the arrow keys to select the cells while
moving to the end of a continuous block of data
Exercise 4 : Deleting rows and columns
Exercise 5 : Inserting rows and columns

9. Find and Replace
What
•How to use the Find and
Replace functionality.
Why
•Can use this to quickly
manipulate data
start by going to either:
Edit -> Find
Edit -> Replace
If a highlighted region is selected,
Excel will only search that region,
otherwise, Excel will search the
entire sheet by default

10. DATA FILTERS
Keyboard shortcut: Hold down the
Alt key to access the data filter
Click on the data filter to show a
list of all unique entries in that
column
All rows not matching the
selected criteria are hidden

11.  PRACTICE :
Exercise 11: Filter out all blank rows from this data set
Exercise 12: Find all the players whose first name is "Alex"
Exercise 13: Use a vlookup and data filters to find all players who are in the
National conference with at least 1000 Yards

12. One of Excel's most useful features is its ability to calculate using a cell address to represent the
value in a cell. This is called using a cell reference.
CELL
REFERENCE
RELATIVE
REFERENCE
ABSOLUTE
REFERENCE
By default, cell references are
relative references. When
copied or filled, they change
based on the relative position
of rows and columns. If you
copy a formula (=A1+B1) into
row 2, the formula will change
to become (=A2+B2).
Absolute references, on the
other hand, do not change
when they are copied or filled
and are used when you want
the values to stay the same.
Press F4 on
any cell
reference & see
what happens
!!
Relative and Absolute Cell References

13. DATA VALIDATION
What
•Using data validation to
control the type of data or
the values that users enter
into a cell
Why
•Restrict data entry to a
certain range of dates,
•Limit choices by using a
list,
•Make sure that only
positive whole numbers
are entered.

14.  PRACTICE:-
Exercise A : Restricting Entry to Numeric Values
Exercise B : Restricting Cell Entry to a List of Values
Exercise 15 :

15. SORTING DATA IN EXCEL
Sorting data is an integral part of data analysis. You might want to put a list of names in
alphabetical order, compile a list of product inventory levels from highest to lowest, or order rows
by colors or icons. Sorting data helps you quickly visualize and understand your data better,
organize and find the data that you want, and ultimately make more effective decisions.
Exercise 16

16. Conditional Formatting
What
•Conditional formatting
allows you to define the
format of individual cells
based on a series of
criteria
Why
•This feature can be used to
make your reports look
better or to highlight
specific values in a table

17.  PRACTICE:
Exercises 14
A. Make the numbers in the table red if <0, green if >0
B. Make every third row in the list grey

18. FREEZE PANES
To keep an area of a worksheet visible while you scroll to another area of the worksheet, you can lock
specific rows or columns in one area by freezing or splitting panes.
•On the View tab, in the Window group, click the arrow below
Freeze Panes.
Do one of the following:
•To lock one row only, click Freeze Top Row.
•To lock one column only, click Freeze First Column.
•To lock more than one row or column, or to lock both rows
and columns at the same time, click Freeze Panes.

19. PROTECTING WORKBOOKS
To prevent a user from accidentally or
deliberately changing, moving, or deleting
important data from a worksheet or
workbook, you can protect certain
worksheet or workbook elements, with or
without a password. You can remove the
protection from a worksheet as needed.
By default, when you protect a worksheet, all the cells
on the worksheet are locked, and users cannot make
any changes to a locked cell. For example, they cannot
insert, modify, delete, or format data in a locked cell.
However, you can specify which elements users will be
able to change when you protect the worksheet.
Protect worksheet elements
1.Select the worksheet that you want to protect.
2.To unlock any cells or ranges that you want other
users to be able to change, do the following:
a.Select each cell or range that you want to unlock.
b.On the Home tab, in the Cells group, click
Format, and then click Format Cells.
c.On the Protection tab, clear the Locked check
box, and then click OK.

20. Dates and Time formats in Excel
What
•Excel has specific methods
for storing Dates and times
Why
•Understanding how to
manipulate date formats is
a common necessity when
creating reports in excel
How Excel stores dates and times.
The basic unit of time in Excel is a day.
A day equals 1, half a day is .5 and an hour time interval is therefore
1/24=0.041666667
Dates are stored as serial values with time starting on January 1,
1900.
January 1,1900 equals 1 and December 1, 2005 equals 38,687 as it
38,687 days after January 1,1900.
One hour past midnight is serial value 38687.041666667 and Noon
on December 1, 2005 is 38687.5.
Storing dates as sequential numbers makes it easy to add, subtract
and determine time intervals between two dates or times.
Dates entered without a specified year are assumed to be in the
current year. A date entered as Feb-28 (in 2005) is stored as
28/2/2005 or date serial 38411.

21. How Excel displays dates and times :
Dates are stored in Excel cells as serial values but can be
displayed in various date formats by clicking Format-Cells-
Number-Date-Type.
The examples on the right use the US date format
mm/dd/yyyy
The date format can be changed to the UK date format
(dd/mm/yyyy) by changing the option in the Locale box.
Excel will recognize an input that is in a date format.
If a user inputs Dec 1, 2005 or 10 May 2004 Excel will
recognize this as a date,
store it in the cell as a serial value, and display it in a date
format.
Excel sometimes makes mistakes. A user may enter 3-4,
meaning a value between 3 and 4,
but Excel will interpret this as March 4th and store the input
as 38415. This can be remedied my placing a quote before
the 3-4 input. i.e. '3-4
03-09-05
Saturday,
September, 2005
9-3
9-3-05
3-Sep
3-Sep-05
03-Sep-05
9-3-05 12:00 AM
9-3-05 0:00
9-3-2005

22. Function basics
What
•Excel Function basics and
syntax
Why
•Understand what all those
different brackets and
punctuation means
To find a list of all excel functions, go to Insert-->Function

23. Error Checking
Errors happen, but if you know why they are happening, they can help you to understand
your data
There are 7 different types of errors in Excel:
#NULL!
Occur when the two or more cell
references are separated incorrectly in a
formula.
#DIV/0!
Occurs when a number is divided by
zero (0).
#VALUE!
Occurs when the wrong type of
argument is used.
#REF! Occurs when a cell reference is not valid
#NAME?
Occurs when Microsoft Excel doesn't
recognize text in a formula.
#NUM!
Occurs with invalid numeric values in a
formula or function.
#N/A
Occurs when a value is not available to
a function or formula.
to find if a value in a cell
is an error, use the
ISERROR() function
to create a #N/A, use
the NA() function
Please go to Exercise 6
:-

24. Text Manipulation
What
•Formulas used to work
with text strings, including
RIGHT(), LEFT(), MID(), and
"&" to join together text
strings
Why
•These functions allow you
to parse and combine text
strings. Frequently useful
when working with pulled
from other data sources

25. Text Functions
Function Description
ASC Changes full-width (double-byte) English letters or katakana within a character string to
half-width (single-byte) characters
BAHTTEXT Converts a number to text, using the ß (baht) currency format
CHAR Returns the character specified by the code number
CLEAN Removes all nonprintable characters from text
CODE Returns a numeric code for the first character in a text string
CONCATENATE Joins several text items into one text item
DOLLAR Converts a number to text, using the $ (dollar) currency format
EXACT Checks to see if two text values are identical
FIND Finds one text value within another (case-sensitive)
FIXED Formats a number as text with a fixed number of decimals
JIS Changes half-width (single-byte) English letters or katakana within a character string to
full-width (double-byte) characters
LEFT Returns the leftmost characters from a text value
LEN Returns the number of characters in a text string
LOWER Converts text to lowercase
MID Returns a specific number of characters from a text string starting at the position you
specify
PHONETIC Extracts the phonetic (furigana) characters from a text string
PROPER Capitalizes the first letter in each word of a text value
REPLACE Replaces characters within text
REPT Repeats text a given number of times
RIGHT Returns the rightmost characters from a text value
SEARCH Finds one text value within another (not case-sensitive)
SUBSTITUTE Substitutes new text for old text in a text string
T Converts its arguments to text
TEXT Formats a number and converts it to text
TRIM Removes spaces from text, except for single spaces between words
UPPER Converts text to uppercase
VALUE Converts a text argument to a number
&
Adds strings of text
together
'
Anything following the '
sign is converted to a
string. Useful if trying to
write the equals sign
" "
Use double quotes (" ") to
signify a string. Example:
45 is a number, but "45"
is a string of characters

26. EXERCISE 7:
Exercise A: Capture the year from the election column
Exercise B: Get rid of the * in front of the president's name
Exercise C: Create a sentence that looks like this "Bill Clinton won the 1996 election with 49.2% of the popular
vote"

27. EXCEL IF FORMULA/FUNCTION
The Microsoft Excel IF function
returns one value if the condition is
TRUE, or another value if the
condition is FALSE.
IF Statement is one of the most popular instructions
among the Decision Making statements.
IF Statement gives the desired intelligence to a
program, so that it can take decisions based on a
criteria and most importantly decide the program
flow.

28. USING SOME OF EXCEL'S MOST COMMON FUNCTIONS
The functions we shall look at first are:
•AVERAGE
•COUNT
•COUNTA
•COUNTBLANK
•MAX
•MIN
•COUNTIF
•SUMIF
AVERAGE(number1,number2, . . . )
The AVERAGE function can take up to 30 arguments.
The arguments supplied must be numeric or references to numeric values. Text
and/or references to text are ignored. It is important to note that cells containing
zeros are NOT ignored. This can give you unexpected results if you are not aware
of it.
COUNT(value1,value2, . . . )
The COUNT function takes up to 30 arguments and each argument
can be a variety of data types, but only numbers are counted.
COUNTA : To count non-empty cells.
COUNBLANK : To count empty cells
The MAX function is used to return the largest number from a set of values.
MAX(number1,number2,. . . )
The MIN function is used to return the smallest number from a set of values.
MIN(number1,number2,. . . )
The COUNTIF function is used to count cells within
a range that meet a specified criterion.
COUNTIF(range , criteria)
The COUNTIF function takes two (2) arguments.
The range argument is a reference to a range of
cells, while the criteria argument is the criterion
that should be met by the cells within range before
they are counted. The criteria specified can be in
the form of a number, text or an expression.
The SUMIF function is used to return the sum value from a specified range that
meets a criterion.
SUMIF(range,criteria, sum range)
The SUMIF takes up to 3 arguments. The range is the range of cells to evaluate to
see if they meet the specified criteria. The criteria specified can be in the form of a
number, text or an expression. The sum_range is the range of cells to sum, but
only if the corresponding cells in the range meet the specified criteria. If sum_range
is omitted then the cells within the range are summed.

29.  PRACTICE : -
Exercise 17 :
Exercise A: Checks whether the first row is over budget
Exercise B: Calculate the cost

30. VLOOKUP :-
VLOOKUP Flowchart

31.  PRACTICE :-
Exercise 8 : Find the corresponding conference each player is in
Exercise 9: Find the corresponding conference each player is in for all 375 players
Exercise 10: Find the corresponding conference each player is in using "Table 2" from
the previous worksheet

32. PIVOT TABLES
Pivot tables are one of Excel's most
powerful features. A pivot table
allows you to extract the significance
from a large, detailed data set.

33. HOW TO CREATE AN EXCEL PIVOT TABLE
1.Open your original spreadsheet and remove any
blank rows or columns.
2.Make sure each column has a heading, as it will be
carried over to the Field List.
3.Make sure your cells are properly formatted for
their data type.
4.Highlight your data range
5.Click the Insert tab.
6.Select the PivotTable button from the Tables
group.
7.Select PivotTable from the list.
8.Double-check your Table/Range: value.
9.Select the radio button for New Worksheet.
10. Click OK.

34.  PRACTICE :
Exercise A : Drag an item such as PRECINCT
from the PivotTable Field List down to the Row
Labels quadrant.
Exercise B : Drag the PARTY field from the
PivotTable Field List to the Column Labels
quadrant.
Exercise C : To see the count for each party , drag
the same field to the Values quadrant
Exercise D : To know the Age Range of voters by
Precinct by Party
Exercise 21 :

35. INTRODUCTION TO EXCEL CHARTS
It is important to choose the correct graph or chart to display
your data effectively and clearly.
 Step 1: Select the chart type. See how a few different
options would look by selecting a chart type.
 Step 2: Chart Source Data – check all the selected data has
been included.
 Step 3: Chart Options – a opportunity to use the different
tabs to give the chart a title, check the axis, decide on
gridlines, data labels and where to show the chart key.
• Step 4: Chart location - it is usually best to place the chart in
a new sheet. However, you may choose to place it on the
same worksheet as the data to review the information more
closely: this is called an Embedded Chart. When complete,
it is placed on the existing worksheet and can be moved,
resized or deleted
Formatting Charts
All parts of a chart, including
the colours, axes, text, etc can
be changed after the initial set
up
Graphs can be imported into
Word files easily and printed
in colour

36.  PRACTICE :
Exercise 18 : Change the formatting in Graph A to look the same as Graph B (three examples)
Exercise 19: Secondary Axis
Exercise 20: Mixed Chart Types

37. EXCEL MACROS
What is Excel Macro ?
Macro is really great tool. It allows you to perform multiple operations just by clicking a simple button
or changing a cell value or opening a workbook etc. It enables you to work in a smart and efficient way.
In terms of productivity, it is very productive as it reduces lots of manual work and gets the things done
very fast.
Before starting writing Macro in Excel 2010/2013,
we need Developer Tab, where all the controls,
options, settings are there for Excel VBA. You can
add developer Tab in your excel 2010/2013 easily
by going through the below mentioned steps.
1.Click on File of the Excel Workbook
2.Click on Option
3.Go to “Customized Ribbon”
4.In Right hand side in “Main Menu” Option check
the “Developer” check box
5.Click OK

38. How to Record Macro in excel
1. Go to “Developer” Tab of the workbook.
2. Click on “Record Macro” button in the right hand side of the Top Menu Bar
3. Click on Record Macro Button shown above
To run the
recorded
macro

39.  PRACTICE :
Exercise 22 : Record 4 macros to work as follows
•A new macro called Down, such that when you run the macro it takes you down one cell.
•A new macro called Up, such that when you run the macro it takes you up one cell.
•A new macro called Left, such that when you run the macro it takes you left one cell.
•A new macro called Right, such that when you run the macro it takes you right one cell.
Now record a fifth macro called Cheat,
which takes you straight to the cell
containing the gold, regardless of your
current starting position
Add some buttons to your
workbook to make these
macros easier to run

40. QUESTIONS :