4 Handy Excel Tricks That Even Beginners Can Use

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May 31, 2022 Business

Microsoft Excel is a powerful data visualization and analysis tool that tends to be underused because most users don’t know it’s true powers. This is due, in part, to the simplicity of the interface, but it’s also because most people see Excel as something an accountant or financial expert would use.

But this couldn’t be further away from the truth! You can use Excel to store and organize a wide range of datasets, from your books to your shopping. Plus, it’s a great way to keep track of your spending habits and identify patterns that may harm your monthly budget (in business and in your personal life).

Plus, it’s easy to learn! If you’re having doubts, here are four tricks you can use to instantly improve your Excel skills and make your life a little easier.

1. Using Filters

Filters are incredibly useful when you work with large datasets but want to see only a section at a time. In Excel, you can choose to see only the rows that fit a specific criterion.

For instance, if you have a list of teachers from all over the world, but you only want to see the ones in the US, you would apply a filter based on their country.

Plus, you can apply a filter to each column of your dataset. This means that you can continue refining the data after applying the first filter. So, if you would want to see teachers from Alabama, US, after filtering by country, you can also filter by state.

2. Creating a Dropdown List

A dropdown list is a predefined list that only allows you to select one of the available values (it doesn’t allow you to introduce your own). This way, you can avoid data entry mistakes (by you or by other users) and you save time since all you have to do is click on the right value.

Plus, it’s quite easy to learn how to create an Excel drop down list based on your dataset. And, once you get comfortable using them, you’ll find you can use them for lots of things such as creating menus or making easy-to-use data entry forms.

3. Split Up Text Information

Data doesn’t always come to you in an organized, neat format (especially when working with text!). But, instead of wasting hours on end browsing the data and organizing everything manually, you can use Excel’s Text to Columns function and be done with it in less than five minutes!

This feature allows you to split the text data based on a delimiter or width. The delimiter can be a special character such as space, comma, semi-colon, stop, tab, or any other. When you work with width, it means you know the exact location where you want to split the column. It may seem a bit confusing at first, but we recommend playing with both until you understand the functionality behind each.

4. Formulas & Functions

Excel has a series of built-in formulas and functions that allow users to format the data, run calculations, and do all sorts of fun stuff. Plus, you can create your own formulas and use them at a later date, but this is for more advanced users.

To use one of the predefined formulas and functions, all you have to do is type the “=” sign in a cell and write what you want to do. For instance, if you want to sum up the values in cells B2 and B3, you have to write “=B2+B3”. But, if you have a wider range of cells, let’s say B2 to B22, you can write “=SUM(B2:B22)”.

Of course, SUM is not the only formula, but it’s probably the most used one. So why not do a bit of digging and find out what other functions and formulas you can use?

Keep Learning!

Excel is a really handy tool once you learn how it works. And it’s extremely useful for those of you who want to start an online business but don’t have much of a budget. Since it is included in the basic Microsoft Office package, it’s probably already on your computer. And if not, it’s easy to get, it’s affordable, and doesn’t require much maintenance.