Tired of boring data? Give it some personality by visualizing your data with Emojis 🙂. Open the Format Cells dialog box > Number Tab > Custom > enter ‘[Color 10]0.00%🙂;[Color 3]-0.00%☹️’ as type.
2. Add Text to Numbers
Adding text to numbers such as ‘Million’ manually is time-consuming and will cause calculation errors because the values are read as text. Instead, use custom formatting. Open the Format Cells box > Number Tab > Custom > enter ‘#,, “Million”’ as type.
3. Disguise Numbers as Text
Words can speak louder than numbers in Excel. For ex., we may not need to know a student’s exact score, but just whether they passed or failed. To disguise numbers, open the Format Cells box > Number Tab > Custom > enter ‘[<70]”Fail”;”Pass”’ as type.
4. Create Invisible Data
Have you ever deleted distracting data from your worksheet, and then all of a sudden, all you see are #REF! errors? To prevent this, you can just hide the data by opening the Format Cells dialog box > Number Tab > Custom > enter ‘;;;’ as type.
5. Convert Numbers -> Percentages
If you’ve ever converted integers to percentages by selecting the percentage icon on the Home tab, you’ve noticed it adds two decimal places. Here's a solution: Open the Format Cells dialog box > Number Tab > Custom > enter 0\% as type.
6. Add Leading Zeros
When entering data with leading zeros, you may have noticed Excel automatically omits the leading zeros from the number. To keep the leading zeros, open the Format Cells dialog box > Number Tab > Custom > enter ‘00000’ (# of digits in the number) as type.
7. Add Ending Zeros
Instead of counting out zeros when entering large numbers, we can use exponential formatting to add the zeros for us. Just type the number followed by ‘e7’ (7 being the number of zeros), and then update the number format to general.
Don’t get lost in the numbers with these formatting tricks! 😏
COUNT vs. COUNTA Functions:
What's the difference? 🤔
Usually, we think of adding numbers in our spreadsheet, but what if you just need to count the items in a list? COUNT and COUNTA are similar functions used to count the number of values in your spreadsheet.
The main difference is that COUNT only counts cells containing numbers, while COUNTA counts cells containing any type of data (non-blank cells), COUNTBLANK is another Excel function with the same syntax that only counts empty cells.
Both XLOOKUP and VLOOKUP are lookup functions used to ‘lookup’ a value from a data table and then return corresponding values. So you might be asking yourself how they work and which one is better?
How VLOOKUP Works:
The VLOOKUP function performs a vertical lookup by searching for the lookup_value from the top of the first column in the table_array and returns a corresponding value to the right based on the col_index_num.
5 Excel shortcuts you should learn (even on a Friday):
1. CTRL ALT V
If you’re still selecting a paste option with the mouse, you need CTRL ALT V in your life! CTRL ALT V opens the paste special dialog box, allowing you to quickly choose a paste option with the keyboard to apply to copied cells.
2. CTRL ARROW
You have to navigate through data almost every time you work in Excel, so why not do it most efficiently? Quickly navigate large data sets with CTRL ARROW. CTRL ARROW jumps to the very top, very bottom, far left, or far right of the data.
Save hours of your life with these 10 Excel productivity tips:
1. Custom Lists
If you are repeatedly entering the same list of values, try this instead. Create a custom list that Excel auto-fills for you. Go to File > Options > Advanced > Edit Custom Lists > Enter List > Import > OK. Enter any list item and drag down the fill handle!
2. AutoFormat
If you waste too much time trying to figure out how to format your data table, meet AutoFormat. AutoFormat creates a selection of data formats that can be applied directly to your data. Just select AutoFormat and choose your favorite style!
If your VLOOKUP function isn’t working, don’t panic; here’s why and how to fix it.
1. Lookup_Value doesn't exist within the table_array
If VLOOKUP can’t find the lookup_value in the first column of the table_array, it will return N/A. Double check and ensure that one, the lookup_value actually exists, and two, the table_array isn't omitting any data.
2. A column was inserted in the table_array
If a column was inserted in the table_array, VLOOKUP is no longer referencing the correct indexed column because it's hard coded. If you insert a new column in your data, make sure to update the col_index_num in your VLOOKUP function.