Excel Tips……..

Sep, Tue 20th, 2011

By:admin

Master the clipboard pane

The clipboard can be very useful when using Excel, as you often need to cut or copy and paste information from one part of a sheet to another, or between different sheets and workbooks. The chances are that you'll need to repeatedly copy and paste different items at different times, depending on the complexity of the task in hand.
You can make this easier by opening the clipboard pane as it enables you to handle multiple clipboard items at the same time. On the Home tab of the ribbon, click the arrow button to the bottom right of the Clipboard group to toggle it open or closed.

Open ribbon dialogs

You'll find buttons similar to the clipboard pane in the bottom right of numerous different ribbon groups on various different tabs. Clicking one will open a related dialog that includes each of the tools in that group, plus a few more for good measure.
If you've used a version of Office prior to 2007, you may recognize many of these dialogs as they're identical to the ones used from Excel menus in Office 2003 and before.
If a ribbon group doesn't have a dialog button, it has no more hidden tools.

Update calculations manually

By default, Excel performs calculations in real time, updating each value as you input numbers or as the data change. This is a handy feature because you can be sure that all of your values are up to date.
However, as spreadsheets become more complicated and include thousands of values or more, automatic calculation can cause a significant lag after each keystroke.
You can disable this feature by going to the Formulas tab of the ribbon and choosing 'Calculation Options | Manual' from the Calculation group. Now you need to press [F9] to update calculations after inputting any new data.

Lock copy formatting

If you need to apply the same formatting to a number of different cells, you can do so quickly by locking the Copy Formatting tool.
Apply the formatting options that you want to the first cell – for instance, bold red text with a yellow background. Select this cell and double-click the 'Format Painter' button in the Clipboard group of the Home tab.
This is now locked on. Any cell that you click into will take on the formatting of the source cell. Click each cell you want to format in this way and then double-click the 'Format Painter' button to turn the lock off.

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