The Excel Essential Skills category groups together posts that cover the essential skills needed to confidently create Excel worksheets that are both professional in look and design.
I have been asked twice in one week to please explain how to calculate GST at 15% using Excel formulas.
You can find information on how to calculate GST (Goods and Services Tax) on the NZ Inland Revenue website. I’ve taken this a step further and put together a tutorial on how to put these calculations into Excel formulas.
Ever wondered what the most used command is in Excel?
I have. In fact a few years back I searched for the answer on Google. I had thought that the answer would surely be ‘Undo’, especially when I think about how often I use the fabulous Ctrl + Z key combination. Amazingly I found a page (which sadly I’m unable to find now) that claimed that Undo wasn’t the most used…it was Paste, Ctrl + V. Read more
PROBLEM: when typing a figure into a cell in Excel the figure is displayed as a date?
SOLUTION: quickly change the format of the cell back to a format that displays numbers, not dates. Read more
PROBLEM: wasting time mucking around with column widths and font sizes so that Excel worksheet data will print on one page.
SOLUTION: within seconds ensure Excel worksheets always fit to the width and height of a printed page.
PROBLEM: wasting time manually changing cell references in Excel from relative (e.g. A3) to absolute (e.g. $A$3).
SOLUTION: learn the relative to absolute shortcut key!
PROBLEM: wasting time writing formulas to find the Average, Count and Sum of a range.
SOLUTION: learn how in Excel you can quickly calculate the Average, Count and Sum of a range without having to write a formula.
PROBLEM: Using the mouse to perform repetitive tasks can really slow you down.
SOLUTION: Learn this group of CTRL key combination shortcuts and start saving yourself a heap of time.
PROBLEM: Having to click and drag…and drag….and drag…to copy a formula down a large number of rows.
SOLUTION: Start using the AutoFill secret shortcut. You’ll love it!
PROBLEM: Wasting time repetitively applying the same formats
within a document.
SOLUTION: copy the formats instead!
If you have recently upgraded to Office 2013 you will have noticed that the Ribbon is collapsed by default, and only the Ribbon tabs are visible. As a result one of the first questions I get asked when doing upgrade training is “why are the Ribbon commands hidden and how do I get them back”? Read more
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