EXCEL IS A BEST PART OF OUR LIFE...

1. 10 Simple Microsoft Excel Tricks,
Shortcuts and Hacks That Can Make
You an Expert
Microsoft Excel is an integral part of most businesses. Some people relish the capabilities
of Excel, finding it a useful tool that allows them to easily manage, report on and
illustrate tables of data.
Others, however, find it tedious and downright obtuse, unable to make heads or tails of
what exactly Excel can do from them, aside from keeping things in neat columns and
rows.
Below is a list of 10 easy tricks, shortcuts and hacks that will put you on the path to being
an Excel super user.
(Note: There are a many versions of Excel, including versions for desktop (Windows,
Mac OS X) and mobile (iOS and Android) operating systems. The visuals are screenshots
from a Mac version of Excel. These tips were confirmed to work on a Mac and Windows
desktop, but may apply to other versions as well. This piece also discusses keyboard
shortcuts for use in a Windows OS. For Mac, replace the “Control” key with the
“Command” key.)
1. Select All Cells in a Spreadsheet at Once
Do you need to reformat your font or make some other sweeping change to your Excel
workbook? An easy way to select all the cells in the document is to click on the square in
the upper left-hand corner where the top of the rows and columns meet.

2. Image 1 – Click on the circled square to select all the cells in the workbook.
Clicking on this box will highlight all of the cells in the document, even empty cells.
If you prefer keyboard shortcuts, you can also select all cells by pressing the “Control”
and “A” buttons at the same time.
2. Copy a Worksheet From 1 Workbook to Another
This is helpful if you’re looking to merge data across two workbooks together and don’t
want to reformat all of your data in either workbook.
1. Start by opening your “source” workbook (the one with the data you want to copy).
2. Next, open your “target” workbook (you want to copy to). This can be a new
workbook or an existing workbook.
3. In your source workbook, look towards the bottom left-hand corner and find the name
of the sheet you want to copy. Unless the name of the worksheet is changed, it should
have a name like “Sheet1” or something else.
4. Right-click on the sheet you want to copy (if on a Mac with a single-button mouse, you
may need to hold down the Control key while clicking).
5. Select “Move or Copy …” from the menu.

3. Image 2 – Right-click (PC) or CTRL-Click (Mac) to reveal the menu. Select Move or
Copy.
6. From the list, select where you want to move or copy the sheet to. You’ll need to click
on the dropdown at the top to see other open workbooks.

4. Image 3 – Click on the circled arrow to see all of the available workbooks you can move
or copy sheets to. This field defaults the workbook you’re currently in.
7. Choose the workbook to copy it to and where in the order of the existing worksheets
you want it to be.
Alternatively, you can simply move the worksheet from one workbook to another by
dragging it with your mouse, but it might be safer to copy it, at least until your comfort
level with Excel increases.
3. Add Multiple Rows and/or Columns at Once
You might find you need to add multiple rows and columns at one time. For example,
let’s say you want to add multiple rows in the middle of a set of data.
1. Select two rows, starting with the row directly below where you want the new rows to
appear. (Note: You can choose as many rows as needed.)
2. Right-click (PC) or CTRL-click (Mac), and select “Insert” from the dropdown menu.

5. Image 4 – Highlight the rows, then right-click (or CTRL-click on Mac) to get the menu.
Select Insert to add rows.
3. Your new rows will appear above the first row you selected.

6. Image 5 – The inserted rows will appear above the first row you selected.
Because you have highlighted rows, Excel understands that you want to insert rows and
will insert the number highlighted. In this example, two rows have been highlighted, so
two blank rows will appear once “Insert” is selected.
4. Filtering Data
By clicking on the “Data” tab at the top of the page and then clicking “Filter,” you will
give each column it’s own clickable dropdown menu on each cell in the first row. Click
one, and you can sort data in a variety of ways.

7. Image 6 – View of the Data menu and available options, including Sort and Filter.
From the list that appears, you can choose certain values or names. Simply unclick
“Select All,” and then click on the names you want. Once you hit “OK,” the dropdown
menu will disappear and show you just the names you had selected.

8. Image 7 – All of the available values in the cells will be selected when this menu is first
opened. To start with a “clean slate,” simply uncheck “(Select All)” at the top of the list.

9. Image 8 – Select the values you want to see in this filtered view.

10. Image 9 – The information you excluded from this view has not been deleted, only
temporarily hidden.
The list has now been truncated to include the values you chose. But as you can see by
the circled row numbers, the other data has not been deleted; it is simply “hidden” in this
view.
You can easily undo any sorting by clicking on the Filter button at the top and choosing
“(Select All)” again.
5. Copying Figures From 1 Worksheet to Another in the Same Workbook
You can use a figure from one cell on one worksheet in another cell on another worksheet
without having to copy and paste them. This is especially handy for calculations where a
number might change month to month, but you have one worksheet that figures
everything on a year-to-date basis.
1. The example below shows the first tab of the workbook that displays Year-To-Date
sales, expenses and revenues totals.

11. 2. The second tab is labeled JAN, and the third tab is labeled FEB.
3. To determine the sum, you need to enter the formula as circled below in the desired
cell =SUM(JAN!B3+FEB!B3). The formula is “WorksheetName!WorksheetCell”
without quotations.
Image 11 – You can enter the formula into the formula bar at the top of the screen (as
circled) or directly into the cell.
6. Copying a Formula Across Rows or Down Columns
You can copy any formula across a range of cells by simply using your mouse. Using the
previous formula as an example, it only needed to be inputed once, in the B2 cell. Once
it’s entered, click on the cell, and then click on the little box that appears in the lower
right-hand corner. Drag it across the desired range of cells, and you will populate the
range using the same formula.

12. Image 12 – This little box in the corner will not appear until you have entered the
information in the cell and then tabbed away from it or clicked outside of it.

13. This copies the formula across the cells, but changes the values relative to the new cell’s
position. For example, in the B3 cell, the formula will read “=SUM(JAN!B3+FEB!B3)”
without quotes. In the C3 cell, the formula will read “=SUM(JAN!C3+FEB!C3)” and so
on.
The same thing can be done if you drag the box downward instead of across; this copies
the formula into the column. So the B3 column formula will read
“=SUM(JAN!B3+FEB!B3)”, while the B4 formula will read
“=SUM(JAN!B4+FEB!B4)”.
7. Transpose Columns and Rows
If you need to move pre-existing data from columns to rows—or vice versa—do not
despair.
1. Select the data you want to transpose, and copy it (CTRL-C).
2. Click on the cell where you want to place the data, and then right-click to get the
dropdown menu. From that menu, select “Paste Special…”.

14. Image 14 – Paste Special offers many different options than just transpose.
3. From the Paste Special menu, click “Transpose” in the lower right-hand corner, and
then click OK.

15. 4. The data is now flipped, with rows as columns and columns as rows.

16. 8. Continuing a Series Down a Column or Across a Row
If you are inputting a numbered list, but don’t want to number every row, there’s a quick
way to do it in Excel.
1. Start your series of numbers.

17. 2. Next, click on the first cell in the list, and drag down on the small box in the lower
right-hand corner (similar to #6.) The cells will auto-populate with what Excel believes
you are trying to do. (It can be intuitive and figure out that it is a numbered list or a set of
dates, etc.)
In the case below, you can see that it simply copied a 1 into each cell in the column, but
that’s not what we want.

18. 3. Click on the small box that appears, and select “Fill Series.”
4. This will adjust the values in the cells so that they become a numbered series. As
shown below, this adjustment will be made for how many cells you have highlighted. So
if you want it numbered from 1 to 100, just highlight the amount of cells you need.

19. 9. Highlight a List of Numbers to See Basic Information
This is a favorite of many Excel super users, because it’s simple and so helpful,
especially when dealing with figures and finances.
If you highlight a group of figures, Excel will display a few “facts” about them in the
lower right-hand corner: namely, the number of cells that are highlighted, the total
number of the cells and the average of the cells’ values.

20. This is really handy if you’re looking for quick total or average without having to enter a
formula.
10. Other Essential Shortcut Keys and Tips
Here are some other shortcuts that you may not be aware of. Some of these are universal
across all Microsoft Office products (e.g. Word, PowerPoint, etc.), but are still very
helpful when using Excel.
 Undo button: This little backwards arrow undoes the last action you took in the
worksheet. It’s the graphic equivalent to using the CTRL-Z keyboard shortcut.

21.  CTRL-SHIFT-Up or Down Arrow: Selects all of the cells directly above (up arrow) or
below (down arrow) of the selected cell. (NOTE: This only selects cells above and below
that have data).
 SHIFT-F11: Creates a new worksheet in your current workbook called “Macro1.” (Note:
In Mac OS, you may need to add the “Fn” key for this shortcut to work).
 CTRL-Home: Navigates to cell A1.
 CTRL-End: Navigates to the last cell that contains data.
 Format Painter (the little paintbrush): Select the cell whose format you want to copy.
Then click on Format Painter in the upper toolbar (or click on the paintbrush in the pop-
up format menu that appears) and click on the cell you want to format. In the below
example, we clicked on the “Expenses” cell, clicked on Format Painter and then clicked
on “Revenue.”

22. As you’re starting a new business, it’s understandable to want to use spreadsheets to
manage your finances. But as sales pick up and your numbers become increasingly
complicated, it’s best to graduate to an easy-to-use accounting software. Sure, these tips
will allow you to get a better handle of your Excel spreadsheets, but the time saved and
errors avoided by using financial software are well-worth the transition.
For more tips on managing the financial side of your business, be sure to check out
our accounting checklist to learn the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly tasks you need to
manage to keep your books in order.