Top Ten Excel Tips for Beginners

There are many tips for Excel. This article is for beginners and covers tips that I review in classes I teach at local schools.

1. 80% of the most used functions, for beginners, in Excel can be done with two toolbars. A toolbar is the icons under menus that are in text format (File, Edit, etc.). You should have the Standard toolbar and the Format toolbar on your screen. To make sure they are, go to the View menu and select Toolbars. There should be a checkmark next to Standard and Format. If one of these does not have a check mark, highlight the menu option with the left mouse button. The toolbar will be displayed.

2. You can use Control (Control) Keys to do many functions. For example, hold down the Ctrl key and press the S key and the file will be saved. Ctrl+P will print the document. Ctrl+B will bold the text or number. There are many more. For a full list, click the link at the bottom of this article and you can download a free copy.

3. You don’t have to use the mouse to navigate to a specific cell. You can use the arrow keys (left, up, down, right), or the PgUp and PgDn keys. Enter will move down one cell and the Tab key will go to the next cell to the right. If you hold down the Ctrl key and press the Home key, you will access the first cell. Ctrl and the End key will go to the last cell.

4. Excel can see what you typed and follow the sequence. For example, if you typed the word Monday, you can use a technique so that the next cell shows Tuesday, etc. Let’s say, for example, that you write on Monday. Go back to the cell that contains Monday and you will notice that at the bottom right of the cell is a small square. This is called mango. Using your mouse carefully place the mouse cursor over the small square. The cursor will turn into a + sign. Click the left mouse button down and while holding the button down move the mouse down (or to the right). Scroll down or to the right seven cells while holding down the left mouse button. (A cell is the intersection of a row and a column.) Release the mouse button and all seven days of the week will be displayed. This works for time, numbers, months, calendar, quarters, and a couple of others.

5. All formulas and functions begin with an equals sign. For example, to add 1 and 2, the formula would be =1+2.

6. If you want to add a column or a row. Type the items you want to add and highlight the items you want to add, plus an empty cell. For example, suppose you have numbers in cells A1 through A5. Highlight A1 to A6. On the Format toolbar there is a Greek symbol ∑ . Click on that symbol and the sum of the numbers will be displayed in the empty cell you highlighted.

7. If you had a number that you wanted to display as a percentage, highlight the cell and on the Formatting toolbar there is a percent sign (%). Click on that symbol and the number in the cell will be displayed as a percentage.

8. Let’s say you had a large spreadsheet and you wanted to go directly to cell J5. You can press the F5 key at the top of the keyboard. Type J5 and press the Enter key. Your cursor will automatically go to cell J5.

9. When you are sure which function to use in Excel, highlight the cell(s) and click the right mouse button. A window will open and the most used functions will be displayed in the menu.

10. To insert a row or column, click the letter to insert a column or the number to insert a row. After clicking the number or letter, right-click it and select Insert from the menu option.