Excel Shortcuts
Increasing YOUR Productivity
CompuHELP
Division of Tommy Harrington Enterprises, Inc.
[email protected]
https://www.facebook.com/TommyHarringtonExtremeExcel
Excel Shortcuts
Increasing YOUR Productivity
by
Tommy B. Harrington
Contents:
NEW FEATURES IN EXCEL ......................................................................................................................... 3
BACKSTAGE VIEW ............................................................................................................................................ 3
CUSTOMIZE THE RIBBON ................................................................................................................................... 3
SPARKLINES .................................................................................................................................................... 3
PASTE PREVIEW .............................................................................................................................................. 4
SLICERS ......................................................................................................................................................... 4
NAVIGATING THE TABS & RIBBONS ......................................................................................................... 5
SUM FUNCTION – ADVANCED .................................................................................................................. 7
ELIMINATE THE #DIV/0! ERROR FROM A WORKSHEET ............................................................................. 8
DOUBLE CLICK TO AUTOFILL A RANGE ..................................................................................................... 9
BASIC RULES............................................................................................................................................. 9
DAY OF THE WEEK WITH CUSTOM FORMAT .......................................................................................... 10
CREATE DOUBLE HEADINGS IN ONE CELL ............................................................................................... 11
FUNCTION WIZARD HELPS WRITE FORMULAS ....................................................................................... 11
GOAL SEEK FOR FORMULA SOLUTIONS .................................................................................................. 12
USE ROW HEIGHT TO DOUBLE-SPACE A REPORT .................................................................................... 14
COPY AN ENTIRE WORKSHEET ............................................................................................................... 15
MAKE A WORKSHEET INTO A WORKBOOK ............................................................................................. 15
WRITE FORMULAS WITH VLOOKUP ....................................................................................................... 16
FIXING WORDS THAT LOOK LIKE NUMBERS ........................................................................................... 19
USING FILTER DISPLAYS ONLY SELECTED DATA ...................................................................................... 21
SUBTOTALS SUMMARIZE INFORMATION ............................................................................................... 23
WORKING WITH PRINT FILES.................................................................................................................. 26
TEXT IMPORT WIZARD ........................................................................................................................... 26
Copyright 2015
2
Tommy Harrington
NEW FEATURES IN EXCEL
Backstage View
The “good old” File Command (missing from 2007) is BACK! Now there’s a File tab on the
Ribbon and when clicked it brings up most of the commands that were attached to the 2003 File
command but now it’s called Backstage View.
Here is where you still find Save, Open and Print commands; but they’ve also added the Excel
Options to this tab.
Customize the Ribbon
Now you can customize the Ribbon, create your own tabs, and move commands around.
This action can be taken from Excel Options or by using the Customize QuickAccess Toolbar
dropdown and selecting More Commands… then selecting Customize the Ribbon.
Sparklines
Copyright 2015
3
Tommy Harrington
Sparklines are tiny charts that fit in a cell—to visually summarize trends alongside data. Because
sparklines show trends in a small amount of space, they are especially useful for dashboards or
other places where you need to show a snapshot of your business in an easy-to-understand
visual format.
Paste Preview
Now you don’t have to UNDO you can see it before it’s done. Whopee!!
Slicers
Slicers offer a highly visual way to filter the data
in PivotTables. You use buttons to quickly
segment and filter the data to display just what
you need. With a Slicer, when you apply more
than one filter to your PivotTable, you no longer
have to open a list to see which filters are
applied to the data.
Other Improvements
Most of the improvements in the new Excel were internal to make Excel function with larger
amounts of data and perform more efficiently.
Here are few of those internal improvements:
 Totals rows from 65,536 to 1,048,6576
 Total columns from 256 to 16,384
 Sorting levels from 3 to 64
 Filter drop-down list from 1,000 to 10,000
 Number of characters in a formula from 1,000 to 8,000
 Nesting levels (sets of parenthesis) in a formula from 7 to 64
 Number of arguments in a functions (like SUM) from 30 to 255
 Number of items returned by Find command from 64,000 to 2,000,000
Now we will discuss the shortcuts and skills you will need when working with the new Excel
versions.
Copyright 2015
4
Tommy Harrington
NAVIGATING THE TABS & RIBBONS
The new Ribbon-Tab interface at the top of the Excel 2010 screen is different from earlier
versions. It has been designed to allow you to access the most useful features quickly. However,
if you are an experienced Excel user, you may have trouble finding your favorite commands.
When getting started with Excel 2010, click on a tab (like Home) and then look at the items
appearing directly above the formula bar.
This is first place to check for familiar commands or groups of commands.
If the items displayed has a new arrow symbol (more features symbol)
attached it may bring up a familiar dialog box.
If you don’t see the more features symbol on an item, then click on the ribbon item immediately
above the ribbon item name.
Going on the ribbon to Cells and then clicking the item above, Format, bring up a list of additional
commands that might be needed.
As in all versions of Excel there is always more than one way to get to the same dialog box.
If you click on Format Cells… at bottom of list shown, you open the Format Cells dialog shown
previously.
Copyright 2015
5
Tommy Harrington
If you are a experienced Excel user who found Excel
keyboard shortcuts useful, you will be happy to know that
almost all of these keyboard shortcuts work in Excel 2010.
AND the shortcuts you use to run the Excel command
Menu without a mouse still work.
Let me give you an example of running the Excel 2003
menu commands in Excel 2010. Ctrl+c is still the shortcut
for the Copy command. After using Ctrl+c you often
pressed Alt e s v then you will be happy to know that this
still performs the Paste Special Values command. Most of
these keyboard shortcuts to menu commands still work in
Excel 2010.
Copyright 2015
6
Tommy Harrington
SUM FUNCTION – ADVANCED
Everyone knows how to use the SUM function…Right? Maybe. Let’s look at using the AutoSum
button and what it can do for us.
You can use the AutoSum button to calculate grand totals from subtotals.
Remember don’t have blank rows in the area of your worksheet where you want an automatic
grand total.
1. Double click the AutoSum
button at cells B7, B10, and B14 to produce subtotals
2. Highlight cell B15
3. Double click the AutoSum
button for the grand total shown
Excel 2010 will include up to 512 subtotals in your grand total.
Instead of clicking the AutoSum button
Copyright 2015
, you can also press ALT+= (equal sign).
7
Tommy Harrington
ELIMINATE THE #DIV/0! ERROR FROM A WORKSHEET
When you write a formula that divides by a cell that could contain zero, use the following method.
Use the IF function to test the divisor for zero.
If this cell is zero, you can have the IF function enter a 0 or blank as shown.
To eliminate #DIV/0! error from formulas in a worksheet:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Click on cell D5
Type =if(
Click on cell B5
Type =0,0,
Click on cell C5
Type /
Click on cell B5
Type ) or press Enter
9. Double click on the AutoFill handle
to copy it from D5 through D8
If you want the cell to be blank rather than show 0, replace Step 4 as shown below:
4. Type =0,””,
Copyright 2015
8
Tommy Harrington
DOUBLE CLICK TO AUTOFILL A RANGE
When a cell or group of cells is highlighted, the bottom or right-most cell has a small black square
on the bottom right corner. You use AutoFill normally by dragging this handle to other cells.
AutoFill repeats patterns, fills from custom lists, or copies.
By double clicking the AutoFill handle you can copy a formula or other information into all
adjacent cells in a range. If you have numbers in cells A1 through B10, then you write the
formula, =A1+B1, in C1, this formula can be copied from C1 through C10 by simply double
clicking the AutoFill handle on cell C1.
After double clicking the AutoFill handle, the formula is copied through cell C10.
BASIC RULES
The first, and perhaps most important, basic rule for building Excel Spreadsheets
is: “Your spreadsheet should have no completely blank columns or rows that
break up your data.” This does not mean you can’t have blank cells or even lines
that have only one entry on them. This is acceptable. I mean don’t skip entire
blank rows or columns for white space. You can accomplish the same “look” for
your report by widening columns and rows as needed.
If you remember and use all four basic rules when you build your spreadsheets
then Excel can automatically paint your data when you sort, sum, outline, filter or
perform other advanced operations.
Remember:
Rule 1:
Rule 2:
Rule 3:
Rule 4:
Copyright 2015
NO BLANK COLUMNS OR ROWS FOR WHITE SPACE
SEPARATE REPORTS ON SEPARATE SHEETS
COLUMN HEADINGS SHOULD BE IN ONE CELL
BE ON SOME “STUFF” WHEN YOU DO A COMMAND
9
Tommy Harrington
DAY OF THE WEEK WITH CUSTOM FORMAT
You can display the day of the week by creating a custom format with ddd in the date format.
You can enter the current computer date by pressing CTRL+:
1. Highlight the cell or cells for displaying day of the week
2. Press Ctrl+1 or click the More Features symbol on Number ribbon item from the
Home tab
3. Click on Custom and click to the right of the code displayed
4. Add a space and “ddd” or “dddd”
5. Then press ENTER
6. If “########” is displayed, best-fit the column to show the date created
Sample date are shown.
Custom formats can also be used in the TEXT function to convert columns of data.
Example: 6/30/2011 (in cell A1) can become 20110630 with =TEXT(A1,”yyyymmdd”)
Copyright 2015
10
Tommy Harrington
CREATE DOUBLE HEADINGS IN ONE CELL
Use Alt+Enter between words in a cell places them on separate lines
Column headings should be unique for certain Excel operations. When Date Shipped, Date
Received, and Date Ordered must be used in a list or database, it is not good to type them on
separate rows. Type Alt+Enter between two words in a cell to be used as a column heading and
have them placed on two lines in the same cell.
Type Order # in cell A1
1. Click on cell B1
2. Type Date
3. Press Alt+Enter (hold down the Alt and press Enter)
4. Type Ordered and press Enter
This can also be done by selecting clicking the Wrap text.
The cell is automatically formatted for Wrap text.
FUNCTION WIZARD HELPS WRITE FORMULAS
Calculate loan payment on a simple interest loan
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Type Loan in Cell A1
Type Rate in A2
Type Term in A3
Type Payment in A4
Move to Cell B1
Type $90,000 (exactly as shown here) and press DOWN Key
Type 8.74% (exactly as shown here) and press DOWN Key
Type $90,000 (exactly as shown here) and press DOWN Key
Now here in cell B4
10. Click on the Function Wizard button
Type Loan payment and click GO button. The PMT will be first in the displayed list. Select it.
Copyright 2015
11
Tommy Harrington
rate, nper, and pv are required. (You can tell since they are shown in bold type.)
If you have to move a dialog box in order to see part of your screen, click and drag the colored
border of the box to a new location.
To enter rate: Click the rate in cell B2, then type /12 and press the TAB key (/12 changes the
annual interest rate shown to a monthly rate which must be done to calculate a monthly
payment.)
To enter nper (number of payment periods): Click on cell B3, then type *12 and press the TAB
key (*12 changes years to months which must be done to calculate a monthly payment.)
To enter pv (loan amount): Click on cell B1
Other items are optional. Click on the OK button to finish and enter the formula in your
spreadsheet.
GOAL SEEK FOR FORMULA SOLUTIONS
Goal Seek is a simple tool with important uses. Using our Loan Payment example we can see
the tremendous potential of Goal Seek. We would like to reverse the formula, that is, calculate
the amount of loan that would give us a $600.00 monthly payment.
To use Goal Seek:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Click on the payment amount
Click on Goal Seek… from the What-If Analysis item on the Data tab
Press the TAB key
Type 600 and press TAB key
Click on cell B1
Copyright 2015
12
Tommy Harrington
6. Click OK
When the Goal Seek Status screen appears, if you wish the payment amount to be $600.00, click
OK and the Loan cell changes to a value of $114,126. If you want the numbers to return to their
previous values, click Cancel.
Goal Seek can be used to adjust any formula to a specified value by changing one cell in a
spreadsheet.
Note: If Goal Seek finds no solution on the first try, enter a different amount and try again.
For more advanced What-If Analysis in which you can adjust more than one variable and set
constraints for certain cells, use the SOLVER add-in which is shipped free with Excel.
Copyright 2015
13
Tommy Harrington
USE ROW HEIGHT TO DOUBLE-SPACE A REPORT
You can use this trick to double-space any report.
1. Click the Select All button
2.
3.
4.
5.
This selects all rows and columns—the entire worksheet
Click on the line below the line number of row 1
Drag this line to the line below row 2
Release the mouse button
Your report is now double-spaced by doubling the row height of every cell in the worksheet.
Copyright 2015
14
Tommy Harrington
COPY AN ENTIRE WORKSHEET
To make a copy of a sheet, hold down CTRL while you drag the sheet tab.
1. Hold down Ctrl key
2. Click and hold down mouse on sheet tab
3. Drag to new position
you wish to copy
4. Release mouse button before releasing Ctrl key
MAKE A WORKSHEET INTO A WORKBOOK
You can create a new workbook from a sheet tab in an existing workbook. Restore the workbook
to a size that allows you to see the area around the workbook window
If you want to make a sheet into a new workbook, drag its tab to the area outside the workbook's
window.
Or
If you want keep the sheet in the existing workbook and also create a new workbook with it, hold
down CTRL while you drag it.
1. Restore the workbook by clicking the Restore button
2. Click and drag the worksheet tab to the desktop within the Excel window
3. Release the mouse button to remove from the old workbook and create a new
workbook
If you hold down the Ctrl key while dragging the sheet tab, a copy is created in a new workbook
without removing it from the original workbook.
Copyright 2015
15
Tommy Harrington
WRITE FORMULAS WITH VLOOKUP
The Vlookup function does a great deal of work for us in Excel. It’s the function that turns Excel
into a relational database program. If you have information in two lists and the information in one
is needed in the other; Vlookup is the “tool” to use. Product names from one table can be
matched with sales data in another table which has only product numbers. Client names can be
placed in a list that has only client number with vlookup. The example below uses vlookup to
place supervisor names in ther proper place in a report automatically.
If you have no valid reason not to, you should always highlight entire columns that contain your
table information. Excel uses less memory to save the file, performs the lookup much faster, and
gives you extra room to add more data in the future to your lookup list. For these reasons always
place your lookup table on a separate worksheet tabs. NOTE: the same worksheet tab could be
used to place all your lookup table if there are more than one needed in this workbook.
As an example, look at the worksheet below:
To write this formula place the cursor in cell H2 now follow the steps below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Type =VLOOKUP(
Press the Left arrow key once OR click on cell E2
Now type a comma ( , )
Click on the sheet tab named Lists
Copyright 2015
16
Tommy Harrington
5. Now place your mouse pointer on column letter A, hold the button down and move right
to column letter C
6. Now type another comma ( , )
7. Since the column containing the supervisor names is the third column we painted, type
the number 3
8. Now type another comma ( , )
9. Type the word FALSE. This forces the VLOOKUP function to return an exact match or
NA
10. Now to finish your formula press ENTER
You do not need to use absolute referencing when writing VLOOKUP formulas. If we copy the
formula we have just written down a column the table reference will not change because we
highlighted entire columns in our formula. If I needed to copy this formula to the left or right I
would then add absolute referencing to permit it to be copied left or right without changing the
lookup function.
When we double-click the AutoFill handle to copy this formula down column H, the formula looks
up the supervisor’s name from our Lists sheet and, if the Sch# is not found, it returns #N/A.
Copyright 2015
17
Tommy Harrington
Copyright 2015
18
Tommy Harrington
FIXING WORDS THAT LOOK LIKE NUMBERS
If you ever import data from another application or the internet, you may have a problem with
words that look like numbers. If you try to sort these “numbers”, they do not sort numerically. If
you try to use VLOOKUP they return the #N/A.
Using Excel 2010 there is a simple way to fix this problem and convert the words (that look like
numbers) to real numbers.
1. First highlight the entire column contain your “words” that should be numbers.
2. Now click the Data tab
3. Select Text to Columns
4. When the Text to Columns Wizard is displayed, simply click the Finish button to correct
the problem.
Copyright 2015
19
Tommy Harrington
Your words that look like numbers are now REAL numbers. Even negative number that were
imported with the negative sign on the right were corrected to become REAL numbers.
Copyright 2015
20
Tommy Harrington
USING FILTER DISPLAYS ONLY SELECTED DATA
You can use Filter to show only select lines of data from a list.
Make sure you have the cursor on one cell in the list to be filtered; and remember the cell cannot
be a blank cell. From the Data tab select Filter.
1. Click on the Button
at the top in the Customer column
2. First click on Select All check mark to clear all selections
3. Now select Raleigh Foods from the list displayed
Copyright 2015
21
Tommy Harrington
You can add the Units column by clicking on the next blank cell in any amount column and then
clicking AutoSum
Copyright 2015
twice.
22
Tommy Harrington
SUBTOTALS SUMMARIZE INFORMATION
Sometimes it is necessary to subtotal information in am Excel list or database. If you list invoices,
purchase orders, loans, production, or shipment information, you probably need to prepare some
type of subtotal report on major categories in your list. This has always been a manual process
until Excel.
It is very important to make sure that your database or list does not contain any completely blank
rows or completely blank columns. Look at the following worksheet:
To have subtotals inserted for each customer in your list:
First sort the list in customer order:
Click in the Customer column (You must click on a single cell between A1 and A11)
Click the Sort Ascending button on the Standard toolbar
This groups customers together in alphabetical order.
Highlight only one cell in your database or list
Select Subtotals from the Data menu
Copyright 2015
23
Tommy Harrington
In the Subtotal dialog box:
Mark Dept in the At Each Change In area
Mark Sum in the Use Function area
Mark Order, Freight and Invoice columns in the Add Subtotal To area
Copyright 2015
24
Tommy Harrington
Click OK
Subtotals have now been inserted in your report.
Not only have subtotals been inserted below each customer group, but also on the left side you
find an Outline bar. Click the 2 button in the Outline bar
subtotals only.
To reveal detail rows again, click the 3 button in the Outline bar
Copyright 2015
25
to hide detail rows and show
.
Tommy Harrington
To remove all Subtotals and the Outline bar select Subtotals from the Data menu
Click Remove All
OR simply sort on any column other the last column you sorted on before.
Subtotals is one of the most powerful and easy-to-use features of Excel. It allows you to create
custom summaries with just a few clicks.
WORKING WITH PRINT FILES
Once you have transferred data files from your source system to your PC, you can import this
data into Excel. To do this use the File Open command, change the Files of Type box to All files
or Text files, change the directory, and open your file. The Text Import Wizard will appear.
ASCII only
With an ASCII file, what you see is what you get. When you import an ASCII or text file, you get
everything—headers, footers, page numbers, blank lines, meaningless rows, detail records and
total rows. Some of these rows contain the information you need; others don’t.
Totals found
From a printed report you may need only certain total rows, specific product numbers or
categories, particular production lines, or information selected by certain criteria.
Lines not needed
“Garbage” must be removed. This term includes blank row, unnecessary header or footer
information, any data not needed but still shown on this report.
Report rows are not complete records
You may encounter a problem if each line in your text file is not a complete record. For example,
the customer name and account number may appear once at the beginning of an order even if
the order contains many different products. To use this type of data you must repeat the
customer information of every line with each product ordered.
Page headers may contain the only reference to a division or branch office. This needs to be
repeated on each detail line.
TEXT IMPORT WIZARD
The data must be converted in order to use it in an Excel worksheet. Excel provides a tool for
importing text files—the Text Import Wizard. This tool works well for importing fixed width and
delimited files.
Copyright 2015
26
Tommy Harrington
Columns in your report file may not be uniform; that is, not neatly placed down a column. For
th
example, on one row the customer account number starts at the 5 character and on the very
th
next row it begins in the 25 position. With Excel alone it is difficult to correct this problem.
The Text Import Wizard also provides no help in selecting only certain rows of data, but imports
ALL rows.
Let’s use the Text Import Wizard to import a file.
Text Import Wizard
You can use the Text to Columns feature not only to import information from other programs and
main frames, but to break single column information into multiple columns.
Copyright 2015
27
Tommy Harrington
The data below needs to be separated into useful information.
You can use Import Text Wizard to separate this data into column and rows.
1. From the Office Options button Select Open
2. From the file type dropdown in the bottom right of the Open screen select Text Files
3. Move through your files and folders to find the correct text file then click Open
4. When Opened the Text Import Wizard displays the top five rows of your file
Copyright 2015
28
Tommy Harrington
5. Excel guesses that this is a Fixed width file and marks it as such.
6. Click the Next button
7. Move column lines to allow for correct field width if necessary
8. Click the Next button
Copyright 2015
29
Tommy Harrington
9. On the screen you can mark columns of data to Skip if you do not need to import this
column. Tip: be sure to mark any column with leading zeros as Text.
10. On this screen click the Finish button
Data is now in columns and rows. You may still need to delete unwanted rows.
Copyright 2015
30
Tommy Harrington
Index
#
N
#DIV/0! error ......................................................8
new workbook from a sheet ............................ 15
A
O
Alt+Enter...........................................................11
ASCII .................................................................27
AutoFill ........................................................... 8, 9
AutoFilter ..........................................................21
AutoSum .............................................................7
Outline bar ..................................................26, 27
P
Print files .......................................................... 27
R
B
Rate.............................................................11, 12
ribbon ...........................................................5, 10
Basic Rule............................................................9
basic rules ...........................................................9
S
C
Sort Ascending ................................................. 24
Subtotal ......................................................25, 26
subtotals ............................................................ 7
Subtotals .....................................................24, 27
SUM function ..................................................... 7
Sumif Function ................................................. 19
current computer date .....................................10
custom format ..................................................10
D
Data menu .................................................. 24, 27
delimited ..........................................................27
double-space ....................................................14
T
text file ............................................................. 27
Text Import Wizard .....................................27, 28
Text Import Wizard
Text to Columns ........................................... 28
Text Import Wizard
Text to Columns ........................................... 29
Text Wizard ...................................................... 29
Toolbars customize .........................................3, 5
F
Files
ASCII .............................................................27
delimited.......................................................27
fixed width ....................................................27
text................................................................27
fixed width ........................................................27
Function Wizard ...............................................11
V
G
vlookup ............................................................ 16
Vlookup............................................................ 16
Goal Seek .................................................... 12, 13
grand totals ........................................................7
W
I
Wrap text ......................................................... 11
IF function...........................................................8
Copyright 2015
31
Tommy Harrington
If your organization needs training, application development, or consulting on Microsoft Office
software—Excel, Access, Word, and PowerPoint; for free estimate on any project please contact:
Tommy Harrington
Email: [email protected]
Notes:
Copyright 2015
32
Tommy Harrington