You can keep my excel

Option Explicit
Public Ontop As Boolean
Declare Function SetWindowPos Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
   ByVal hwndInsertAfter As Long, ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long, _
   ByVal cx As Long, ByVal cy As Long, ByVal wFlags As Long) As Long
Const SWP_NOSIZE = &H1
Const SWP_NOMOVE = &H2
Const HWND_TOPMOST = -1
Const HWND_NOTOPMOST = -2
Sub TestShowXLOnTop()
    If Ontop = False Then
        Ontop = True
        RANGE("R_Ontop") = "T"
        ShowXLOnTop True
    Else
        Ontop = False
        RANGE("R_Ontop") = ""
        ShowXLOnTop False
    End If
End Sub
Public Function ShowXLOnTop(Ontop As Boolean)
Dim hXL As Long, setting As Long
If Ontop Then setting = HWND_TOPMOST Else setting = HWND_NOTOPMOST
hXL = Application.hwnd
SetWindowPos hXL, setting, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOSIZE Or SWP_NOMOVE
End Function
Sub TestShowXLNormal()
ShowXLOnTop False
End Sub

Bottom Line: Learn how to lock individual cells or ranges in Excel so that users cannot change the formulas or contents of protected cells. Plus a few bonus tips to save time with the setup.

Skill Level: Beginner

Video Tutorial

Download the Excel File

You can download the file that I use in the video tutorial by clicking below.

Protecting Your Work from Unwanted Changes

If you share your spreadsheets with other users, you’ve probably found that there are specific cells you don’t want them to modify. This is especially true for cells that contain formulas and special formatting.

The great news is that you can lock or unlock any cell, or a whole range of cells, to keep your work protected. It’s easy to do, and it involves two basic steps:

1. Locking/unlocking the cells.
2. Protecting the worksheet.

Here’s how to prevent users from changing some cells.

Step 1: Lock and Unlock Specific Cells or Ranges

Right-click on the cell or range you want to change, and choose Format Cells from the menu that appears.

This will bring up the Format Cells window (keyboard shortcut for this window is Ctrl + 1.). Choose the tab that says Protection.

Next, make sure that the Locked option is checked.

Locked is the default setting for all cells in a new worksheet/workbook.

Once we protect the worksheet (in the next step) those locked cells will not be able to be altered by users.

If you want users to be able to edit a particular cell or range, uncheck the Locked box so they are unlocked. Since cells are locked by default, most of the job will be going through the sheet and unlocking cells that can be edited by users.

I share some shortcuts to make this process faster in the Bonus section below.

Step 2: Protect the Worksheet

Now that you’ve locked/unlocked the cells that you want users to be able to edit, you want to protect the sheet. Once you protect the sheet, users cannot change the locked cells. However, they can still modify the unlocked cells.

To protect the sheet, simply right-click on the tab at the bottom of the sheet, and choose Protect Sheet… from the menu.

This will bring up the Protect Sheet window. If you want your sheet to be password protected, you have the option of entering a password here. Adding a password is optional. Click OK.

If you’ve chosen to enter a password, then you will be prompted to verify your entry after you’ve clicked OK.

With the sheet protected, users will be unable to change the cells that are locked. If they try to make changes, they will get an error/warning message that looks like this.

You can unprotect the sheet in the same way that you protected it, by right-clicking on the sheet tab. An alternative way to protect and unprotect sheets is by using the Protect Sheet button in the Review tab of the Ribbon.

The button text displays the opposite of the current state. It says Protect Sheet when the sheet is unprotected, and Unprotect Sheet when it is protected.

It’s important to note that all cells can be edited when the sheet is unprotected. After making changes you must protect the sheet again and Save the workbook before sending or sharing with other users.

3 Bonus Tips for Locking Cells and Protecting Sheets

As you can see, it is fairly simple to protect your formulas and formatting from being changed! But I’d like to leave you with three tips to help make it faster & easier for both you and your users.

1. Prevent Locked Cells From Being Selected

This tip will help make it faster and easier for your users to input data in the sheet.

Turning off the Select locked cells option prevents the locked cells from being selected with either the mouse or keyboard (arrow or tab keys). This means users will only be able to select the unlocked cells that they need to edit. They can quickly hit the Tab, Enter, or arrow keys to move to the next editable cell.

To make this change, you just uncheck the option that says “Select locked cells” on the Protect Sheet window.

After pressing OK, you will only be able to select the unlocked cells.

2. Add a button for locking cells to the Quick Access Toolbar

This allows you to quickly see the locked setting for a cell or range.

From the Home tab on the Ribbon, you can open the drop-down menu under the Format button and see the option to Lock Cell.

If you right-click on the Lock Cell option, another menu appears giving you the option to add the button to the Quick Access Toolbar.

When you select this option, the button will be added to the Quick Access Toolbar at the top of the workbook. This button will remain each time you use Excel. You can easily lock and unlock specific cells on your sheet by clicking on this button.

You can also see if the active cell locked or unlocked. The button will have a dark background if the selection is locked.

It’s important to note that this only shows the locked state of the active cell. If you have multiple cells selected, the active cell is the cell you selected first and appears with no fill shading.

Mixed Lock State

If you select a range that contains both locked and unlocked cells, you will see a solid box for the Locked checkbox in the Format Cells window. This denotes the mixed state.

You can click the checkbox to lock or unlock ALL cells in the selected range.

3. Use different formatting for locked cells

By changing the formatting of cells that are locked, you give your users a visual clue that those cells are off limits. In this example the locked cells have a gray fill color. The unlocked (editable) cells are white. You can also provide a guide on the sheet or instructions tab.

You might be wondering where I found this template for a quote. I got it from the template library. You can access the library by going to the File tab, choosing New, and using the search word “quote.”

You can find all sorts of useful templates there, including invoices, calendars, to-do lists, budgets, and more.

Conclusion

By locking your cells and protecting your sheet, you can keep your formulas safe from tampering by other users, and prevent mistakes.

I hope this simple tutorial proves helpful to you. Please leave a comment below if you have any tips or questions about locking cells, protecting sheets with passwords, or preventing users from changing cells.

Thank you! 🙂

Watch Video – How to Track Changes in Excel

If you work with an Excel file that needs to be updated or reviewed by other people, the option to track changes can come in handy.

You can also use it when you’re updating a file and need to keep a track of all the changes you do yourself. This can be helpful when you revisit it sometime later.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to track changes in Excel.

Enabling the Track Changes in Excel Feature

By default, this feature is disabled in Excel.

Here are the steps to enable track changes in Excel:

The above steps would enable ‘Track Changes’ in Excel and now it will highlight any change done to the workbook.

Note: For this option to work, you need to have the workbook saved on your system or a network drive. If the file has not been saved, it will first ask you to save it before enabling the ‘Track Changes’ option. If the file is already saved, it will still save it before enabling the tracking.

How do ‘Track Changes’ work in Excel?

Once you have enabled the tracking, whenever you or anybody who accesses the workbook makes any changes to it, it will get highlighted with a blue border and get a small blue triangle in the top left of the cell. This is similar to the red triangle you see when you insert a comment in a cell.

For example, below I have a dummy project plan and I have made changes in column B (cell B4 and B6).

When you hover the cursor over the cell that has a change, it will show a message that specifies what the change is, who made the change, and when it was done.

Note that when ‘track changes’ option is enabled in Excel, the workbook is shared and some of the features are automatically disabled. For example, you will not be able to protect a sheet when ‘track changes’ are ON. You will notice that some of the options in the ribbon are grayed out.

Getting a List of All the Changes

If you have a workbook that has a lot of changes made to it, you may want to get a list of all the changes separately as a list.

Here are the steps to get a list of all the changes in a new worksheet:

This will instantly create a new worksheet that will list all the changes that you have made.

Accepting/Rejecting Changes

When the changes are made, these are not final until you review these changes. This can be useful when you have the reviewed file from your colleague/boss/client, and you have to decide on what changes are to be kept and which ones are to be rejected.

Here are the steps to accept/reject changes in Excel:

If you reject a change, it will revert back to the original value.

Note that when you accept a change, you can not undo it.

Disabling Track Changes in Excel

Once your work is finalized, you can disable the track changes feature in Excel. That will remove any existing blue box in the cells and will stop tracking any further changes.

Here are the steps to disable ‘track changes’ in Excel:

Difference Between Comments and Track Changes

A lot of people prefer adding comments while reviewing other people’s work in Excel.

Here are the major differences in ‘comments’ and the ‘track changes’ functionality:

• You don’t need to edit a cell’s content in order to leave a comment. Track changes, on the other hand, would insert a note whenever there is any change in the cell.
• Adding comment is a manual process, while track changes, when enabled, would automatically record everything that happens in the worksheet.
• You can not get a list of all the comments separately in a worksheet (unless you use VBA as shown here) while you can get it with the tracking functionality with a simple click.
• When you enable track changes in Excel, some of the functionalities are disabled. This is not the case with comments.

You May Also Like the Following Tutorials:

• How to Use Spell Check in Excel.
• Using Input Message in Excel to Display Message when a Cell is Selected.

When it comes time to send your Excel spreadsheet, it’s important to protect the data that you’re sharing. You might want to share your data, but that doesn’t mean it should be changed by someone else.

Spreadsheets often contain essential data that shouldn’t be modified or removed by the recipient. Luckily, Excel has built-in features to protect your spreadsheets.

In this tutorial, I’ll help you make sure that your Excel workbooks maintain data integrity. Here are three key techniques you’ll learn in this tutorial:

• Password protect entire workbooks to prevent them from being opened by unauthorized users.
• Protect individual sheets and the workbook structure, to prevent the insertion or deletion of sheets in the workbook.
• Protect cells, to specifically allow or disallow changes to key cells or formulas in your Excel spreadsheets.

Even users with the best intentions may accidentally break an important or complex formula. The best thing to do is remove the option to change your spreadsheets altogether.

How to Protect Excel: Cells, Sheets, & Workbooks (Watch & Learn)

In the screencast below, you’ll see me work through several important types of protection in Excel. We’ll protect an entire workbook, a single spreadsheet, and more.

Want a step-by-step walkthrough? Check out my steps below to find out how to use these techniques. You’ll learn how to protect your workbook in Excel, as well as protecting individual worksheets, cells, and how to work with advanced settings. 

We start with broader worksheet protections, then work down to narrower targeted protections you can apply in Excel. Let’s get started learning how to protect your spreadsheet data:

1. Password Protect an Excel Workbook File

Let’s start off by protecting an entire Excel file (or workbook) with a password to prevent others from opening it.

This is a breeze to do. While working in Excel, navigate to the File tab choose the Info tab. Click on the Protect Workbook dropdown option and choose Encrypt with Password.

As is the case with any password, choose a strong and secure combination of letters, numbers, and characters, bearing in mind that passwords are case-sensitive.

It’s important to note that Microsoft has really beefed up the seriousness of their password protection in Excel. In prior versions, there were easy workarounds to bypass password protection of Excel workbooks, but not in newer versions.

In Excel 2013 and beyond, the password implementation will prevent these traditional methods to bypass it. Make sure that you store your passwords carefully and safely or you risk permanently losing access to your crucial workbooks.

Excel Workbook — Mark as Final

If you want to be a bit less forceful with your spreadsheets, consider using the Mark as Final feature. When you mark an Excel file as the final version, it switches the file to read-only mode, and the user will have to re-enable editing.

To change a file to read-only mode, return to the File > Info button, and click on Protect Workbook again. Click on Mark as Final and confirm that you want to mark the document as a final version.

Marking a file as the final version will add a soft warning to the top of the file. Anyone who opens the file after it has been marked as final will see a notice, warning them that the file is finalized. 

Marking a file as the final version is a less formal way of signaling that a file shouldn’t be changed further. The recipient still has the ability to click Edit Anyway and modify the spreadsheet. Marking a file as the final edition is more like a suggestion, but it’s a great approach if you trust the other file users.

2. Password Protect Your Excel Sheet Structure

Next up, let’s learn how to protect the structure of an Excel workbook. This option will ensure that no sheets are deleted, added, or re-arranged inside of the workbook.

If you want everyone to be able to access the workbook, but limit the changes they can make to a file, this is a great start. This protects the structure of the workbook, and limits how the user can change the sheets inside of it.

To turn on this protection, go to the Review tab on Excel’s ribbon and click on Protect Workbook.

Once this option is turned on, the following will go into effect:

• No new sheets can be added to the workbook.
• No sheets can be deleted from the workbook.
• Sheets can no longer be hidden or unhidden from the user’s view.
• The user can no longer drag and drop the sheet tabs to reorder them in the workbook.

Of course, trusted users can be given the password to unprotect the workbook and modify it. To unprotect a workbook, simply click on the Protect Workbook button again and input the password to unprotect the Excel workbook.

3. How to Protect Cells in Excel

Now, let’s get down to really detailed methods for protecting a spreadsheet. So far, we’ve been password protecting an entire workbook or the structure of an Excel file. In this section, we dig into how to protect your cells in Excel with specific settings you can apply. We cover how to allow or block certain types of changes to be made to parts of your spreadsheet.

To get started, find Excel’s Review tab, and click on Protect Sheet. On the pop-up window, you’ll see a huge set of options. This window allows you to fine-tune how you want to protect the cells in your Excel spreadsheet. For now, let’s leave the settings at their default.

This option allows for very specific protections of your spreadsheet. By default, the options will almost totally lock down the spreadsheet. Let’s add a password so that the sheet is protected. If you press OK at this point, let’s see what happens when you attempt to change a cell.

Excel throws off an error that the cell is protected, which is exactly what we wanted.

Basically, this option is crucial if you want to ensure that your spreadsheet isn’t changed by others who have access to the file. Using the protect sheet feature is a way that you can selectively protect the spreadsheet.

To unprotect the sheet, simply click on the Protect Sheet button and re-enter the password to remove the protections added to the sheet.

Specific Protections in Excel

Let’s take a second look at the options that show when you start to protect a sheet in Excel workbooks.

The Protect Sheet menu lets you refine the options for sheet protection. Each of the boxes on this menu lets the user change slightly more inside of a protected worksheet.

To remove a protection, check the respective box in the list. For example, you could allow the spreadsheet user to Format cells by checking the corresponding box.

Here are two ideas on how you could selectively allow the user to change the spreadsheet:

• Check the Format cells, columns, and rows boxes to let the user change the visual appearance of cells without modifying the original data.
• Insert columns and rows could be checked so that the user can add more data, while protecting the original cells.

The important box to leave checked is the Protect worksheet and contents of locked cells box. This protects the data inside of cells. 

When you’re working with crucial financial data or formulas that will be used in making decisions, you have to maintain control of the data and ensure that it doesn’t change. Using these types of targeted protections is an important Excel skill to master.

Recap and Keep Learning More About Excel

Locking up a spreadsheet before you send it is crucial to protecting your valuable data and making sure that it’s not misused. The tips I shared in this tutorial help you maintain control of that data even after your Excel spreadsheet is forwarded and shared.

All of these tips are additional tools and steps to becoming an advanced Excel user. Protecting your workbooks is a specific skill, but there are lots of ways to improve your performance. As always, there’s room to grow your Excel skills further. Here are some helpful Excel tutorials with important skills to master next:

• PivotTables are a great tool for working with spreadsheet data. Here’s 5 Advanced Excel Pivot Table Techniques to learn now.
• ExcelZoo has a listing of additional tutorials for protecting your workbooks, sheets, and cells.
• Condition formatting changes how a cell looks based on what’s inside of it. Here’s a comprehensive Excel tutorial on How to Use Conditional Formatting.

How do you protect your important business data when sharing it? Let me know in the comments section if you use these protection tools or others I may not know about.

Did you find this post useful?

I believe that life is too short to do just one thing. In college, I studied Accounting and Finance but continue to scratch my creative itch with my work for Envato Tuts+ and other clients. By day, I enjoy my career in corporate finance, using data and analysis to make decisions.

I cover a variety of topics for Tuts+, including photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom, PowerPoint, Keynote, and more. What I enjoy most is teaching people to use software to solve everyday problems, excel in their career, and complete work efficiently. Feel free to reach out to me on my website.

Q: The Excel spreadsheet keeps closing itself while I’m working in it and also when it is open while working in another window. When I re-open it, a message says an error is causing the problem. I click on the Repair Now button this activity does not keep the spreadsheet from auto-closing every few minutes. Why does my Excel file keep closing itself? I have lost several worksheets due to the unexpected auto shutdown.

It seems that there is a conflict arising when you open the Excel application on your Windows PC. Usually, the conflict may start within the program itself, or with a third-party item that is associated with it. What’s more, if you check further on other Microsoft Office suites like Word, PowerPoint, if the problem occurs to the brotherhood applications, the problem is hugely pointed to the Microsoft Office installation and Windows operating system.

If your Microsoft Excel file keeps closing automatically due to the manner of ‘copy and past’, ‘save (as) a file’, or just start typing, it is probably because Excel has a crash problem. Here, you can get 5 fixes to get rid of the issue.

Fix 1. Check Compatibility Issue of MS Office and Windows 10

First and foremost, you should recall two things that may help you figure out when and what causes the crashing problem. [1] What is the version of the Excel application currently installed on your PC? [2] Did you update your Windows 10 system in recent days? Is the date happening to be the day the Excel file starts closing automatically? If you’ve done either of the things here, you should ask yourself: Is this version of Excel compatible with Windows 10? For an older version of Excel, like before 2013, even you don’t subject to the stability issue right now, we still recommend you turn to the new version to be able to run in Windows 10.

To resolve the incompatibility issue of Excel and Windows 10, except using the newer version of Excel, you can also try to run the present Excel in Windows Compatibility Mode taught by Microsoft Support.

Make older apps or programs compatible with Windows 10

Fix 2. Repair MS Office

When your Excel starts issues like crash, freezing, not responding, and like now closing itself automatically, you should be very careful with creating a new file because the file will be completely in danger of losing content. We advise you have a check on Word. See if the same problem happens to Word or other Office Suite like PowerPoint. If yes, then it’s sure about the Microsoft Office issue and it needs repair.

• Open Programs and Features in Control Panel using a direct way: 

Press Windows +R keys and type appwiz.cpl and click OK

• Locate Microsoft Office among the list, right-click on it, and choose Change

• Select Quick Repair and click the Repair button

Fix 3. Repair Corrupted Excel Files

The Excel application may keep closing when you are opening and viewing a corrupted Excel workbook. Try to fix the damaged Excel files with a reliable file repair tool — EaseUS file repair software. This file repair software enables you to repair corrupted Word, Excel, and PPT from Microsoft Office 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, & previous versions. 

EaseUS file repair software allows you to repair multiple Office files at a single point in time. What’s more, it still can fix corrupted PDF files and restore text, hyperlinks, forms, headers, footers, etc. Now, free download this file repair toolkit to fix any corrupted files quickly. 

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, and then scan disk with corrupted documents. This software enables you to fix damaged Word, Excel, PPT, and PDF files in same steps. 

Step 2. EaseUS data recovery and repair tool will scan for all lost and corrupted files. You can find the target files by file type or type the file name in the search box. 

Step 3. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can repair your damaged documents automatically. After file preview, you can click «Recover» to save the repaired Word, Excel, and PDF document files to a safe location.

Fix 4. Disable COM Add-ins

The COM add-ins are bad while editing on a large Excel file. It consumes memory a lot and easily causes genere issues in the Excel file to freeze and crash. So it’s highly suggested to disable add-ins in Excel.

• In Excel, go to File> Options> Add-ins
• Choose COM Add-ins from the drop-down and click Go
• Uncheck all the checkboxes and click OK

Fix 5. Disable Conditional Formatting Rules

Did you use the Conditional Formatting Rules on some specific spreadsheets? The Conditional Formatting Rules are based on choosing a different color to highlight or differentiate information storage in a spreadsheet. If you’re facing the Excel file closing automatically a few times only in a particular Excel spreadsheet, you can consider not using this feature at the moment, to check if the Excel file can work normally again.

• Under Home, click Conditional Formatting
• Choose Clear Rules
• Select Clear Rules from Entire Sheet
• Close and restart the Excel file again

Fix 6. Launch Excel in Safe Mode

If the previous four solutions are not in line with your case, and you’re still in trouble, try to launch Excel in Safe Mode this time. If it’s not the problem within the program, it might be some unknown startup processes are interrupting its performance. 

• Press Windows + R keys to bring up Run
• Type excel.exe /safe and hit Enter

How to Recover Unsaved Excel Files After Automatically Closing

Data loss is the most direct consequence brought by the problem — Microsoft Excel file closing automatically. The good side is that Microsoft Office has the ability to save your draft while editing in a recoverable folder. The autosave feature is usually turned on by default, unless you have disabled it by yourself, it’s likely that you can recover an unsaved Excel file from the auto-recovery folder.

To recover unsaved Excel files from AutoRecover:

• Open a new Excel file in Windows
• Click File > Open > Recent Workbooks
• Then check the recently used Excel document and find the unsaved file due to a sudden Excel close

• Click Recover Unsaved Workbooks and wait to let the program recover your closed Excel file

• On the new pop up window telling you that there is a recovered file that is temporarily stored on your computer, click Save As to store the Excel as a new file to a safe location on your PC

Excel is an amazing tool for analyzing and visualizing  data sets. To visualize and make report we often need to save small chunks of data. These small chunks of data grow over time and make the files heavier. But data is not the only reason behind the large size of your excel file. There are many more things you need consider if you want to reduce the file size of your Excel file.

It is important to have small size of excel file. The first reason is loading time. If your excel file is large (2 mb or larger) you will notice longer loading time, reduced performance, unresponsiveness, etc. All this can be avoided if you keep your file size reasonable. These are the few effective methods to reduce the file size.

7 Ways to Reduce the Excel File Size

1: Remove Unused Data From File

It happens many times that  we import data in excel file for temporary use but forget to remove it. This increases the size of the Excel file.

To reduce the size of excel file identify the data that you don’t really need. Delete those ranges and save the file. This will reduce the file size.

Pro tip: if you right somewhere down in the sheet and then delete it, excel remembers it and takes all that range in used range and save the file. For example, if your data is in range A2:B10. And for some reason you temporarily write something in cell A100000. Then Excel will take used range as A2:B100000. This increases the file size. Delete such ranges.

2: Remove non essential formulas/calculation.

This is one of the biggest reason for the large size of data. The excel function take memory and CPU time for calculations. They engage the memory in calculations. Although Excel formulas are fast and light but they make file heavy if there are too many complex formulas.

We often use formulas to pull or calculate some calculations that is only for one time and does not need to be dynamic. Identify such formulas and value paste them. This will reduce the file size.

If you got to have a large number of formulas in your excel file than try to have a VBA sub routine for that calculations. Remove the formulas from the worksheet and do those calculations in a VBA subroutine. This will make your file too much lighter than before.

If you don’t want to use VBA for calculations and want to have formulas on the sheet, disable the automatic calculations. If you have too many complex formula on sheet, every time you make a  change in Excel file those calculations will be recalculated. This will take time and memory and can make your Excel file unresponsive. To avoid this, disable the automatic workbook calculation and set it to manual.

To set formula calculation to manual:

Go to File —> Options —> Formulas.

Now the workbook will be calculated only when you want. To recalculate the workbook use the F9 key on the keyboard.

Using this method, you can reduce the burden on the CPU.

Pro Note: Try not to use Volatile functions like OFFSET, RAND, RANDBETWEEN, etc.

3. Delete Unused Hidden Sheets

When we work a long time on an Excel file, we create many temporary sheets that is required for a short period of time. When we don’t use them, we hide them in order to use them later. But we often forget about those sheets. These hidden sheets increase the file size. Identify such hidden sheets and get the rid of them. This will decrease the Excel file size.

4. Remove Unused Pivot Table and Charts

For quick summery of data I create pivot tables. Once I have used them, I delete those pivot tables. Because pivot tables increase the file size. If a pivot table is for one time use, it is better use and scrap them at earliest. Same goes for the charts. Charts are graphics and they increase the size of Excel file significantly. Until and unless the chart is necessary, I suggest to not have a chart in excel file.

5. Remove Unnecessary Formatting from the Large Excel File.

The formatting is done in Excel files to make data easy to understand and readable. But sometimes we do formatting to please the eyes only. There’s nothing bad in that but if the size of file increases that it creates problem, we should avoid unnecessary formatting.

By the unnecessary formatting, I mean formatting on the data sheet. The sheet that contains the source data, does not need to be formatted that much. So we should avoid implementing borders and colors to that data sheet. You can do the formatting on the reports and dashboard sheet/

6: See if you can save source data in a Data Base

If you have a large amount of  data that you process in Excel but Excel hangs and gets unresponsive while processing that much of data than you should reconsider using excel for saving data. Excel is not a database tool. It is an analytical tool. To save large amount of data that can grow overtime, you should use database tools like Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, CSV etc.

You can use the Excel’s External Data Source feature or Power Query to process that much data. This can help you reduce the file size of Excel Workbook significantly.

7: Save as Excel Binary File

The Excel is evolved to work with other tools and that kind of file takes a large space. This type of Excel file has extension .xlsx that you are familiar with. But if your Excel file does not need to interact with other tools than save the Excel file as Excel Binary File. The extension of this type of file is .xlsb. This has lesser features but has all the essential features of Excel and size of file is significantly lesser than the .xlsx file.

Pro Tip: Always keep a copy of original file before trying to reduce the size of file. So that your data is intact if you do some mistake in duplicate file. Sometimes the reason of big size of excel file is unknown. Try to recreate the file. Do not external JPEG images for beautification of the reports if size is increasing too much.

So yeah guys, these are the ways to reduce the file size of large excel files. I hope it was explanatory enough and helpful for you. If you have any doubts or specific requirement, ask me in the comments section below. Till then keep Excelling.

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Sometimes, Excel seems too good to be true. All I have to do is enter a formula, and pretty much anything I’d ever need to do manually can be done automatically.

Need to merge two sheets with similar data? Excel can do it.

Need to do simple math? Excel can do it.

Need to combine information in multiple cells? Excel can do it.

In this post, I’ll go over the best tips, tricks, and shortcuts you can use right now to take your Excel game to the next level. No advanced Excel knowledge required.

What is Excel?

Microsoft Excel is powerful data visualization and analysis software, which uses spreadsheets to store, organize, and track data sets with formulas and functions. Excel is used by marketers, accountants, data analysts, and other professionals. It’s part of the Microsoft Office suite of products. Alternatives include Google Sheets and Numbers. 

Find more Excel alternatives here.

Excel is primarily used for creating financial documents because of its strong computational powers. You’ll often find the software in accounting offices and teams because it allows accountants to automatically see sums, averages, and totals. With Excel, they can easily make sense of their business’ data.

While Excel is primarily known as an accounting tool, professionals in any field can use its features and formulas — especially marketers — because it can be used for tracking any type of data. It removes the need to spend hours and hours counting cells or copying and pasting performance numbers. Excel typically has a shortcut or quick fix that speeds up the process.

You can also download Excel templates below for all of your marketing needs. 

After you download the templates, it’s time to start using the software. Let’s cover the basics first.

Excel Basics

If you’re just starting out with Excel, there are a few basic commands that we suggest you become familiar with. These are things like:

• Creating a new spreadsheet from scratch.
• Executing basic computations like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.
• Writing and formatting column text and titles.
• Using Excel’s auto-fill features.
• Adding or deleting single columns, rows, and spreadsheets. (Below, we’ll get into how to add things like multiple columns and rows.)
• Keeping column and row titles visible as you scroll past them in a spreadsheet, so that you know what data you’re filling as you move further down the document.
• Sorting your data in alphabetical order. 

Let’s explore a few of these more in-depth. 

For instance, why does auto-fill matter? 

If you have any basic Excel knowledge, it’s likely you already know this quick trick. But to cover our bases, allow me to show you the glory of autofill. This lets you quickly fill adjacent cells with several types of data, including values, series, and formulas.

There are multiple ways to deploy this feature, but the fill handle is among the easiest. Select the cells you want to be the source, locate the fill handle in the lower-right corner of the cell, and either drag the fill handle to cover cells you want to fill or just double click:

Similarly, sorting is an important feature you’ll want to know when organizing your data in Excel. 

Sometimes you may have a list of data that has no organization whatsoever. Maybe you exported a list of your marketing contacts or blog posts. Whatever the case may be, Excel’s sort feature will help you alphabetize any list.

Click on the data in the column you want to sort. Then click on the «Data» tab in your toolbar and look for the «Sort» option on the left. If the «A» is on top of the «Z,» you can just click on that button once. If the «Z» is on top of the «A,» click on the button twice. When the «A» is on top of the «Z,» that means your list will be sorted in alphabetical order. However, when the «Z» is on top of the «A,» that means your list will be sorted in reverse alphabetical order.

Let’s explore more of the basics of Excel (along with advanced features) next. 

To use Excel, you only need to input the data into the rows and columns. And then you’ll use formulas and functions to turn that data into insights. 

We’re going to go over the best formulas and functions you need to know. But first, let’s take a look at the types of documents you can create using the software. That way, you have an overarching understanding of how you can use Excel in your day-to-day. 

Documents You Can Create in Excel

Not sure how you can actually use Excel in your team? Here is a list of documents you can create:

• Income Statements: You can use an Excel spreadsheet to track a company’s sales activity and financial health.
• Balance Sheets: Balance sheets are among the most common types of documents you can create with Excel. It allows you to get a holistic view of a company’s financial standing.
• Calendar: You can easily create a spreadsheet monthly calendar to track events or other date-sensitive information.

Here are some documents you can create specifically for marketers.

• Marketing Budgets: Excel is a strong budget-keeping tool. You can create and track marketing budgets, as well as spend, using Excel. If you don’t want to create a document from scratch, download our marketing budget templates for free.
• Marketing Reports: If you don’t use a marketing tool such as Marketing Hub, you might find yourself in need of a dashboard with all of your reports. Excel is an excellent tool to create marketing reports. Download free Excel marketing reporting templates here.
• Editorial Calendars: You can create editorial calendars in Excel. The tab format makes it extremely easy to track your content creation efforts for custom time ranges. Download a free editorial content calendar template here.
• Traffic and Leads Calculator: Because of its strong computational powers, Excel is an excellent tool to create all sorts of calculators — including one for tracking leads and traffic. Click here to download a free premade lead goal calculator.

This is only a small sampling of the types of marketing and business documents you can create in Excel. We’ve created an extensive list of Excel templates you can use right now for marketing, invoicing, project management, budgeting, and more.

In the spirit of working more efficiently and avoiding tedious, manual work, here are a few Excel formulas and functions you’ll need to know.

Excel Formulas

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the wide range of Excel formulas that you can use to make sense out of your data. If you’re just getting started using Excel, you can rely on the following formulas to carry out some complex functions — without adding to the complexity of your learning path.

• Equal sign: Before creating any formula, you’ll need to write an equal sign (=) in the cell where you want the result to appear.
• Addition: To add the values of two or more cells, use the + sign. Example: =C5+D3.
• Subtraction: To subtract the values of two or more cells, use the — sign. Example: =C5-D3.
• Multiplication: To multiply the values of two or more cells, use the * sign. Example: =C5*D3.
• Division: To divide the values of two or more cells, use the / sign. Example: =C5/D3.

Putting all of these together, you can create a formula that adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides all in one cell. Example: =(C5-D3)/((A5+B6)*3).

For more complex formulas, you’ll need to use parentheses around the expressions to avoid accidentally using the PEMDAS order of operations. Keep in mind that you can use plain numbers in your formulas.

Excel Functions

Excel functions automate some of the tasks you would use in a typical formula. For instance, instead of using the + sign to add up a range of cells, you’d use the SUM function. Let’s look at a few more functions that will help automate calculations and tasks.

• SUM: The SUM function automatically adds up a range of cells or numbers. To complete a sum, you would input the starting cell and the final cell with a colon in between. Here’s what that looks like: SUM(Cell1:Cell2). Example: =SUM(C5:C30).
• AVERAGE: The AVERAGE function averages out the values of a range of cells. The syntax is the same as the SUM function: AVERAGE(Cell1:Cell2). Example: =AVERAGE(C5:C30).
• IF: The IF function allows you to return values based on a logical test. The syntax is as follows: IF(logical_test, value_if_true, [value_if_false]). Example: =IF(A2>B2,»Over Budget»,»OK»).
• VLOOKUP: The VLOOKUP function helps you search for anything on your sheet’s rows. The syntax is: VLOOKUP(lookup value, table array, column number, Approximate match (TRUE) or Exact match (FALSE)). Example: =VLOOKUP([@Attorney],tbl_Attorneys,4,FALSE).
• INDEX: The INDEX function returns a value from within a range. The syntax is as follows: INDEX(array, row_num, [column_num]).
• MATCH: The MATCH function looks for a certain item in a range of cells and returns the position of that item. It can be used in tandem with the INDEX function. The syntax is: MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_array, [match_type]).
• COUNTIF: The COUNTIF function returns the number of cells that meet a certain criteria or have a certain value. The syntax is: COUNTIF(range, criteria). Example: =COUNTIF(A2:A5,»London»).

Okay, ready to get into the nitty-gritty? Let’s get to it. (And to all the Harry Potter fans out there … you’re welcome in advance.)

Note: The GIFs and visuals are from a previous version of Excel. When applicable, the copy has been updated to provide instruction for users of both newer and older Excel versions.

1. Use Pivot tables to recognize and make sense of data.

Pivot tables are used to reorganize data in a spreadsheet. They won’t change the data that you have, but they can sum up values and compare different information in your spreadsheet, depending on what you’d like them to do.

Let’s take a look at an example. Let’s say I want to take a look at how many people are in each house at Hogwarts. You may be thinking that I don’t have too much data, but for longer data sets, this will come in handy.

To create the Pivot Table, I go to Data > Pivot Table. If you’re using the most recent version of Excel, you’d go to Insert > Pivot Table. Excel will automatically populate your Pivot Table, but you can always change around the order of the data. Then, you have four options to choose from.

• Report Filter: This allows you to only look at certain rows in your dataset. For example, if I wanted to create a filter by house, I could choose to only include students in Gryffindor instead of all students.
• Column Labels: These would be your headers in the dataset.
• Row Labels: These could be your rows in the dataset. Both Row and Column labels can contain data from your columns (e.g. First Name can be dragged to either the Row or Column label — it just depends on how you want to see the data.)
• Value: This section allows you to look at your data differently. Instead of just pulling in any numeric value, you can sum, count, average, max, min, count numbers, or do a few other manipulations with your data. In fact, by default, when you drag a field to Value, it always does a count.

Since I want to count the number of students in each house, I’ll go to the Pivot table builder and drag the House column to both the Row Labels and the Values. This will sum up the number of students associated with each house.

2. Add more than one row or column.

As you play around with your data, you might find you’re constantly needing to add more rows and columns. Sometimes, you may even need to add hundreds of rows. Doing this one-by-one would be super tedious. Luckily, there’s always an easier way.

To add multiple rows or columns in a spreadsheet, highlight the same number of preexisting rows or columns that you want to add. Then, right-click and select «Insert.»

In the example below, I want to add an additional three rows. By highlighting three rows and then clicking insert, I’m able to add an additional three blank rows into my spreadsheet quickly and easily.

3. Use filters to simplify your data.

When you’re looking at very large data sets, you don’t usually need to be looking at every single row at the same time. Sometimes, you only want to look at data that fit into certain criteria.

That’s where filters come in.

Filters allow you to pare down your data to only look at certain rows at one time. In Excel, a filter can be added to each column in your data — and from there, you can then choose which cells you want to view at once.

Let’s take a look at the example below. Add a filter by clicking the Data tab and selecting «Filter.» Clicking the arrow next to the column headers and you’ll be able to choose whether you want your data to be organized in ascending or descending order, as well as which specific rows you want to show.

In my Harry Potter example, let’s say I only want to see the students in Gryffindor. By selecting the Gryffindor filter, the other rows disappear.

Pro Tip: Copy and paste the values in the spreadsheet when a Filter is on to do additional analysis in another spreadsheet.

4. Remove duplicate data points or sets.

Larger data sets tend to have duplicate content. You may have a list of multiple contacts in a company and only want to see the number of companies you have. In situations like this, removing the duplicates comes in quite handy.

To remove your duplicates, highlight the row or column that you want to remove duplicates of. Then, go to the Data tab and select «Remove Duplicates» (which is under the Tools subheader in the older version of Excel). A pop-up will appear to confirm which data you want to work with. Select «Remove Duplicates,» and you’re good to go.

You can also use this feature to remove an entire row based on a duplicate column value. So if you have three rows with Harry Potter’s information and you only need to see one, then you can select the whole dataset and then remove duplicates based on email. Your resulting list will have only unique names without any duplicates.

5. Transpose rows into columns.

When you have rows of data in your spreadsheet, you might decide you actually want to transform the items in one of those rows into columns (or vice versa). It would take a lot of time to copy and paste each individual header — but what the transpose feature allows you to do is simply move your row data into columns, or the other way around.

Start by highlighting the column that you want to transpose into rows. Right-click it, and then select «Copy.» Next, select the cells on your spreadsheet where you want your first row or column to begin. Right-click on the cell, and then select «Paste Special.» A module will appear — at the bottom, you’ll see an option to transpose. Check that box and select OK. Your column will now be transferred to a row or vice-versa.

On newer versions of Excel, a drop-down will appear instead of a pop-up.

6. Split up text information between columns.

What if you want to split out information that’s in one cell into two different cells? For example, maybe you want to pull out someone’s company name through their email address. Or perhaps you want to separate someone’s full name into a first and last name for your email marketing templates.

Thanks to Excel, both are possible. First, highlight the column that you want to split up. Next, go to the Data tab and select «Text to Columns.» A module will appear with additional information.

First, you need to select either «Delimited» or «Fixed Width.»

• «Delimited» means you want to break up the column based on characters such as commas, spaces, or tabs.
• «Fixed Width» means you want to select the exact location on all the columns that you want the split to occur.

In the example case below, let’s select «Delimited» so we can separate the full name into first name and last name.

Then, it’s time to choose the Delimiters. This could be a tab, semi-colon, comma, space, or something else. («Something else» could be the «@» sign used in an email address, for example.) In our example, let’s choose the space. Excel will then show you a preview of what your new columns will look like.

When you’re happy with the preview, press «Next.» This page will allow you to select Advanced Formats if you choose to. When you’re done, click «Finish.»

7. Use formulas for simple calculations.

In addition to doing pretty complex calculations, Excel can help you do simple arithmetic like adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing any of your data.

• To add, use the + sign.
• To subtract, use the — sign.
• To multiply, use the * sign.
• To divide, use the / sign.

You can also use parentheses to ensure certain calculations are done first. In the example below (10+10*10), the second and third 10 were multiplied together before adding the additional 10. However, if we made it (10+10)*10, the first and second 10 would be added together first.

8. Get the average of numbers in your cells.

If you want the average of a set of numbers, you can use the formula =AVERAGE(Cell1:Cell2). If you want to sum up a column of numbers, you can use the formula =SUM(Cell1:Cell2).

9. Use conditional formatting to make cells automatically change color based on data.

Conditional formatting allows you to change a cell’s color based on the information within the cell. For example, if you want to flag certain numbers that are above average or in the top 10% of the data in your spreadsheet, you can do that. If you want to color code commonalities between different rows in Excel, you can do that. This will help you quickly see information that is important to you.

To get started, highlight the group of cells you want to use conditional formatting on. Then, choose «Conditional Formatting» from the Home menu and select your logic from the dropdown. (You can also create your own rule if you want something different.) A window will pop up that prompts you to provide more information about your formatting rule. Select «OK» when you’re done, and you should see your results automatically appear.

10. Use the IF Excel formula to automate certain Excel functions.

Sometimes, we don’t want to count the number of times a value appears. Instead, we want to input different information into a cell if there is a corresponding cell with that information.

For example, in the situation below, I want to award ten points to everyone who belongs in the Gryffindor house. Instead of manually typing in 10’s next to each Gryffindor student’s name, I can use the IF Excel formula to say that if the student is in Gryffindor, then they should get ten points.

The formula is: IF(logical_test, value_if_true, [value_if_false])

Example Shown Below: =IF(D2=»Gryffindor»,»10″,»0″)

In general terms, the formula would be IF(Logical Test, value of true, value of false). Let’s dig into each of these variables.

• Logical_Test: The logical test is the «IF» part of the statement. In this case, the logic is D2=»Gryffindor» because we want to make sure that the cell corresponding with the student says «Gryffindor.» Make sure to put Gryffindor in quotation marks here.
• Value_if_True: This is what we want the cell to show if the value is true. In this case, we want the cell to show «10» to indicate that the student was awarded the 10 points. Only use quotation marks if you want the result to be text instead of a number.
• Value_if_False: This is what we want the cell to show if the value is false. In this case, for any student not in Gryffindor, we want the cell to show «0». Only use quotation marks if you want the result to be text instead of a number.

Note: In the example above, I awarded 10 points to everyone in Gryffindor. If I later wanted to sum the total number of points, I wouldn’t be able to because the 10’s are in quotes, thus making them text and not a number that Excel can sum.

The real power of the IF function comes when you string multiple IF statements together, or nest them. This allows you to set multiple conditions, get more specific results, and ultimately organize your data into more manageable chunks.

Ranges are one way to segment your data for better analysis. For example, you can categorize data into values that are less than 10, 11 to 50, or 51 to 100. Here’s how that looks in practice: 

=IF(B3<11,“10 or less”,IF(B3<51,“11 to 50”,IF(B3<100,“51 to 100”)))

It can take some trial-and-error, but once you have the hang of it, IF formulas will become your new Excel best friend.

11. Use dollar signs to keep one cell’s formula the same regardless of where it moves.

Have you ever seen a dollar sign in an Excel formula? When used in a formula, it isn’t representing an American dollar; instead, it makes sure that the exact column and row are held the same even if you copy the same formula in adjacent rows.

You see, a cell reference — when you refer to cell A5 from cell C5, for example — is relative by default. In that case, you’re actually referring to a cell that’s five columns to the left (C minus A) and in the same row (5). This is called a relative formula. When you copy a relative formula from one cell to another, it’ll adjust the values in the formula based on where it’s moved. But sometimes, we want those values to stay the same no matter whether they’re moved around or not — and we can do that by turning the formula into an absolute formula.

To change the relative formula (=A5+C5) into an absolute formula, we’d precede the row and column values by dollar signs, like this: (=$A$5+$C$5). (Learn more on Microsoft Office’s support page here.)

12. Use the VLOOKUP function to pull data from one area of a sheet to another.

Have you ever had two sets of data on two different spreadsheets that you want to combine into a single spreadsheet?

For example, you might have a list of people’s names next to their email addresses in one spreadsheet, and a list of those same people’s email addresses next to their company names in the other — but you want the names, email addresses, and company names of those people to appear in one place.

I have to combine data sets like this a lot — and when I do, the VLOOKUP is my go-to formula.

Before you use the formula, though, be absolutely sure that you have at least one column that appears identically in both places. Scour your data sets to make sure the column of data you’re using to combine your information is exactly the same, including no extra spaces.

The formula: =VLOOKUP(lookup value, table array, column number, Approximate match (TRUE) or Exact match (FALSE))

The formula with variables from our example below: =VLOOKUP(C2,Sheet2!A:B,2,FALSE)

In this formula, there are several variables. The following is true when you want to combine information in Sheet 1 and Sheet 2 onto Sheet 1.

• Lookup Value: This is the identical value you have in both spreadsheets. Choose the first value in your first spreadsheet. In the example that follows, this means the first email address on the list, or cell 2 (C2).
• Table Array: The table array is the range of columns on Sheet 2 you’re going to pull your data from, including the column of data identical to your lookup value (in our example, email addresses) in Sheet 1 as well as the column of data you’re trying to copy to Sheet 1. In our example, this is «Sheet2!A:B.» «A» means Column A in Sheet 2, which is the column in Sheet 2 where the data identical to our lookup value (email) in Sheet 1 is listed. The «B» means Column B, which contains the information that’s only available in Sheet 2 that you want to translate to Sheet 1.
• Column Number: This tells Excel which column the new data you want to copy to Sheet 1 is located in. In our example, this would be the column that «House» is located in. «House» is the second column in our range of columns (table array), so our column number is 2. [Note: Your range can be more than two columns. For example, if there are three columns on Sheet 2 — Email, Age, and House — and you still want to bring House onto Sheet 1, you can still use a VLOOKUP. You just need to change the «2» to a «3» so it pulls back the value in the third column: =VLOOKUP(C2:Sheet2!A:C,3,false).]
• Approximate Match (TRUE) or Exact Match (FALSE): Use FALSE to ensure you pull in only exact value matches. If you use TRUE, the function will pull in approximate matches.

In the example below, Sheet 1 and Sheet 2 contain lists describing different information about the same people, and the common thread between the two is their email addresses. Let’s say we want to combine both datasets so that all the house information from Sheet 2 translates over to Sheet 1.

So when we type in the formula =VLOOKUP(C2,Sheet2!A:B,2,FALSE), we bring all the house data into Sheet 1.

Keep in mind that VLOOKUP will only pull back values from the second sheet that are to the right of the column containing your identical data. This can lead to some limitations, which is why some people prefer to use the INDEX and MATCH functions instead.

13. Use INDEX and MATCH formulas to pull data from horizontal columns.

Like VLOOKUP, the INDEX and MATCH functions pull in data from another dataset into one central location. Here are the main differences:

• VLOOKUP is a much simpler formula. If you’re working with large data sets that would require thousands of lookups, using the INDEX and MATCH function will significantly decrease load time in Excel.
• The INDEX and MATCH formulas work right-to-left, whereas VLOOKUP formulas only work as a left-to-right lookup. In other words, if you need to do a lookup that has a lookup column to the right of the results column, then you’d have to rearrange those columns in order to do a VLOOKUP. This can be tedious with large datasets and/or lead to errors.

So if I want to combine information in Sheet 1 and Sheet 2 onto Sheet 1, but the column values in Sheets 1 and 2 aren’t the same, then to do a VLOOKUP, I would need to switch around my columns. In this case, I’d choose to do an INDEX and MATCH instead.

Let’s look at an example. Let’s say Sheet 1 contains a list of people’s names and their Hogwarts email addresses, and Sheet 2 contains a list of people’s email addresses and the Patronus that each student has. (For the non-Harry Potter fans out there, every witch or wizard has an animal guardian called a «Patronus» associated with him or her.) The information that lives in both sheets is the column containing email addresses, but this email address column is in different column numbers on each sheet. I’d use the INDEX and MATCH formulas instead of VLOOKUP so I wouldn’t have to switch any columns around.

So what’s the formula, then? The formula is actually the MATCH formula nested inside the INDEX formula. You’ll see I differentiated the MATCH formula using a different color here.

The formula: =INDEX(table array, MATCH formula)

This becomes: =INDEX(table array, MATCH (lookup_value, lookup_array))

The formula with variables from our example below: =INDEX(Sheet2!A:A,(MATCH(Sheet1!C:C,Sheet2!C:C,0)))

Here are the variables:

• Table Array: The range of columns on Sheet 2 containing the new data you want to bring over to Sheet 1. In our example, «A» means Column A, which contains the «Patronus» information for each person.
• Lookup Value: This is the column in Sheet 1 that contains identical values in both spreadsheets. In the example that follows, this means the «email» column on Sheet 1, which is Column C. So: Sheet1!C:C.
• Lookup Array: This is the column in Sheet 2 that contains identical values in both spreadsheets. In the example that follows, this refers to the «email» column on Sheet 2, which happens to also be Column C. So: Sheet2!C:C.

Once you have your variables straight, type in the INDEX and MATCH formulas in the top-most cell of the blank Patronus column on Sheet 1, where you want the combined information to live.

14. Use the COUNTIF function to make Excel count words or numbers in any range of cells.

Instead of manually counting how often a certain value or number appears, let Excel do the work for you. With the COUNTIF function, Excel can count the number of times a word or number appears in any range of cells.

For example, let’s say I want to count the number of times the word «Gryffindor» appears in my data set.

The formula: =COUNTIF(range, criteria)

The formula with variables from our example below: =COUNTIF(D:D,»Gryffindor»)

In this formula, there are several variables:

• Range: The range that we want the formula to cover. In this case, since we’re only focusing on one column, we use «D:D» to indicate that the first and last column are both D. If I were looking at columns C and D, I would use «C:D.»
• Criteria: Whatever number or piece of text you want Excel to count. Only use quotation marks if you want the result to be text instead of a number. In our example, the criteria is «Gryffindor.»

Simply typing in the COUNTIF formula in any cell and pressing «Enter» will show me how many times the word «Gryffindor» appears in the dataset.

15. Combine cells using &.

Databases tend to split out data to make it as exact as possible. For example, instead of having a column that shows a person’s full name, a database might have the data as a first name and then a last name in separate columns. Or, it may have a person’s location separated by city, state, and zip code. In Excel, you can combine cells with different data into one cell by using the «&» sign in your function.

The formula with variables from our example below: =A2&» «&B2

Let’s go through the formula together using an example. Pretend we want to combine first names and last names into full names in a single column. To do this, we’d first put our cursor in the blank cell where we want the full name to appear. Next, we’d highlight one cell that contains a first name, type in an «&» sign, and then highlight a cell with the corresponding last name.

But you’re not finished — if all you type in is =A2&B2, then there will not be a space between the person’s first name and last name. To add that necessary space, use the function =A2&» «&B2. The quotation marks around the space tell Excel to put a space in between the first and last name.

To make this true for multiple rows, simply drag the corner of that first cell downward as shown in the example.

16. Add checkboxes.

If you’re using an Excel sheet to track customer data and want to oversee something that isn’t quantifiable, you could insert checkboxes into a column.

For example, if you’re using an Excel sheet to manage your sales prospects and want to track whether you called them in the last quarter, you could have a «Called this quarter?» column and check off the cells in it when you’ve called the respective client.

Here’s how to do it.

Highlight a cell you’d like to add checkboxes to in your spreadsheet. Then, click DEVELOPER. Then, under FORM CONTROLS, click the checkbox or the selection circle highlighted in the image below.

Once the box appears in the cell, copy it, highlight the cells you also want it to appear in, and then paste it.

17. Hyperlink a cell to a website.

If you’re using your sheet to track social media or website metrics, it can be helpful to have a reference column with the links each row is tracking. If you add a URL directly into Excel, it should automatically be clickable. But, if you have to hyperlink words, such as a page title or the headline of a post you’re tracking, here’s how.

Highlight the words you want to hyperlink, then press Shift K. From there a box will pop up allowing you to place the hyperlink URL. Copy and paste the URL into this box and hit or click Enter.

If the key shortcut isn’t working for any reason, you can also do this manually by highlighting the cell and clicking Insert > Hyperlink.

18. Add drop-down menus.

Sometimes, you’ll be using your spreadsheet to track processes or other qualitative things. Rather than writing words into your sheet repetitively, such as «Yes», «No», «Customer Stage», «Sales Lead», or «Prospect», you can use dropdown menus to quickly mark descriptive things about your contacts or whatever you’re tracking.

Here’s how to add drop-downs to your cells.

Highlight the cells you want the drop-downs to be in, then click the Data menu in the top navigation and press Validation.

From there, you’ll see a Data Validation Settings box open. Look at the Allow options, then click Lists and select Drop-down List. Check the In-Cell dropdown button, then press OK.

19. Use the format painter. 

As you’ve probably noticed, Excel has a lot of features to make crunching numbers and analyzing your data quick and easy. But if you ever spent some time formatting a sheet to your liking, you know it can get a bit tedious.

Don’t waste time repeating the same formatting commands over and over again. Use the format painter to easily copy the formatting from one area of the worksheet to another. To do so, choose the cell you’d like to replicate, then select the format painter option (paintbrush icon) from the top toolbar.

Excel Keyboard Shortcuts 

Creating reports in Excel is time-consuming enough. How can we spend less time navigating, formatting, and selecting items in our spreadsheet? Glad you asked. There are a ton of Excel shortcuts out there, including some of our favorites listed below.

Create a New Workbook

PC: Ctrl-N | Mac: Command-N

Select Entire Row

PC: Shift-Space | Mac: Shift-Space

Select Entire Column

PC: Ctrl-Space | Mac: Control-Space

Select Rest of Column

PC: Ctrl-Shift-Down/Up | Mac: Command-Shift-Down/Up

Select Rest of Row

PC: Ctrl-Shift-Right/Left | Mac: Command-Shift-Right/Left

Add Hyperlink

PC: Ctrl-K | Mac: Command-K

Open Format Cells Window

PC: Ctrl-1 | Mac: Command-1

Autosum Selected Cells

PC: Alt-= | Mac: Command-Shift-T

Other Excel Help Resources

• How to Make a Chart or Graph in Excel [With Video Tutorial]
• Design Tips to Create Beautiful Excel Charts and Graphs
• Totally Free Microsoft Excel Templates That Make Marketing Easier
• How to Learn Excel Online: Free and Paid Resources for Excel Training

Use Excel to Automate Processes in Your Team

Even if you’re not an accountant, you can still use Excel to automate tasks and processes in your team. With the tips and tricks we shared in this post, you’ll be sure to use Excel to its fullest extent and get the most out of the software to grow your business.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2017 but has been updated for comprehensiveness.