Though it has been called the world's most comprehensive spreadsheet software, most people are using only about 2% of the functionality! And even though most people use or could use Excel on daily to make their jobs easier, most people have never had any sort of Microsoft Excel training. Not to worry! Microsoft Excel training courses are inexpensive and full of information that will help you to impress yourself and your coworkers with newfound productivity and innovation. Until you can get to a Microsoft Excel training classroom, here are a few solutions to common Excel problems.
Problem: I want to be able to force a line break inside of a cell, but when I press enter, the cursor moves to another cell! As frustrating as this may be, there is a simple and fast solution that is covered in basis Microsoft Excel training programs. When you're ready to force a line break, hold down the "alt" key when pressing enter. Viola! Your cursor should move to the next line within the cell rather than sending you to a new cell.
A similar problem many people face is trying to import multiple hard enter lines of data from another source into Excel. Excel assumes that every new line should be in its own cell but, what if that's not what you had in mind? In order to paste the data, hard-enter returns and all, into one cell simply place your cursor on the cell, hit "F2" and then paste.
Problem: I don't want others to change the values in the Excel spreadsheet cells! After you learn how to create all kinds of new fancy spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel training, you'll certainly want to share them with others. However, since the formulas, charts, and graphs are all dependent on other cells, you won't want recipients to accidentally overwrite a number and skew multiple areas of data.
At the same time, there may be some cells that you do want people to have the ability to change. For example, imagine you've create a spreadsheet that helps the sales team calculate their earned bonuses based on the new bonus structure. Each sales person will need to be able to enter his or her particular variables into the sheet in order to return their unique results, but without accidentally overwriting one of the key fixed variables.
The solution to this problem is taught at the intermediate level of Microsoft Excel training and is called "protecting" the Excel worksheet. You can protect an entire workbook, one worksheet, or certain cells within a worksheet. To protect the entire workbook or one worksheet, click "tools" from the menu bar, select "protection" and then choose your level of protection. To allow users to change cells, choose "tools," "protection," and then select "allow users to edit ranges." Next, select "new," then the graph icon, and you'll be able to use your mouse to select the range of cells that can be edited.
Microsoft Excel training courses can show you ways to manage your data that most people don't even realize are possible. Just 5 days of Microsoft Excel training courses can take you or your team from adding and subtracting to writing complex formulas using Excel VBA (Visual Basic for Applications.) No matter what level of expertise you're shooting for, understanding more about Excel's clever and powerful features can help you discover new ways to interpret and interact with your data.
One of the most exciting things you'll learn in Excel courses is how to go beyond the toolbar and begin creating powerful formulas inside the worksheet cells themselves. During your Excel course, you find that Excel formulas can handle a lot more than simple equations. In fact, there is most likely an excel formula that will solve just about any problem you're having with your spreadsheets. Though classroom Excel courses will go into much greater detail and cover a lot more ground, this article will touch on some ways to handle common problems with Excel formulas.
Problem: I need to combine the contents of two or more cells! There are numerous reasons why you might need to combine the contents of two or more cells. For example, you may have a column of customer first names and a column of last names that you need to combine into one cell. You won't need to waste your time retyping the entire list; Microsoft foresaw this problem and created the "concatenate" function to solve it.
The word 'concatenate' literally means 'to link together' or 'to unite in a series or chain.' You can join the data from as many cells as possible with the concatenate function. In this example, we'll assume that we're joining the first names in column A, with last names in column B. In the cell where you want the combined information to appear, simply type =concatenate(A1," ",B1).
Make sure to enter a space between the A1 and the B1 cell labels surrounded by quotation marks so that Excel knows to leave a space between the first name and the last name. There is much more functionality and lots of other uses for the concatenate function that are explained in greater detail in an Excel course.
Problem: I need an easier way to create a numbered or dated list! Many, many spreadsheets have a need for an organized list that includes months of the year (January, February), days of the week (Monday, Tuesday), progressing dates (1/22/07, 1/23/07), or just a numbered list. So many spreadsheets have the need for such lists, that the functionality to automatically populate these lists is built right into the Excel cells.
The process is simple, and even a bit fun. Simply type the first list name into one of the Excel cell, for example, "Monday." Next hover your mouse over the bottom right corner of the cell until the pointer becomes a "+" sign and drag your mouse across the cells where you want your list to appear.
Excel intuitively knows that you're attempting to create a list of days of the week and fills in the empty cells in seconds flat. Sometimes with numbered lists Excel needs you to fill in the first two cells in order to understand you intended pattern, but never much more than that. In Excel courses, you'll learn lots more about this feature, like how to build customized lists with your own repeating information like employee names.
Most people who try Excel courses say that they're shocked by the sheer amount of interesting functions they didn't know existed in Excel. After attending several Excel courses you can build all sorts of customized, interactive spreadsheets that can handle just about any functionality you can imagine. If you're a business owner, sending your employees through Excel courses can easily boost productivity. Regardless of how you use it, understanding more about Excel's clever and powerful features can open doors to new and more intuitive way of interpreting your data.
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