10 Excel Tips to Make Your Life Easier – Part 1
An average day for me goes something like this:
- Roll out of bed, shower, then rush to work like a bat out of hell.
- Get to work and start my computer, then open up Excel and work on a spreadsheet.
- Head out for lunch around Noon.
- Get back to the office, then open up Excel and work on a spreadsheet.
- Head home and turn on the computer, then open up Excel and work on a spreadsheet.
- Eat dinner, then open up Excel and work on a spreadsheet.
- And finally, go to sleep and start the cycle all over again.
Now, I might be exaggerating about using Excel all the time, yet it definitely is the main application I use at work and at home. Then again, Excel is the Swiss Army knife of small business software; as Andrew of Trizoko so aptly put it:
If you need an accounting application, use Excel.
If you need a contact management application, use Excel.
If you need a CRM system, use Excel.
If you need a payroll application, use Excel.
So with that in mind, I thought I would share 10 of my favorite Excel tips to help make your life a little easier. The original video was almost 20 minutes long, so I split the video into 2 parts to keep viewers from falling asleep.
In addition, I thought I’d take the opportunity to send the Viddler crew some love and show off what their new video sharing and tagging site can do. If you’re new to Viddler, you can click on the time tags and comments (shown as dots in the time line) to access the different tips directly, or you can just watch the video in its entirety. Anyway, here it is!
10 Excel Tips to Make Your Life Easier – Part 1
If you’re unable to see the video below, CLICK HERE to view it on Viddler.
➡ Tip #1) Master the Art of Bulk Entry
➡ Tip #2) Quickly Inserting Rows & Columns
➡ Tip #3) Moving Your Data Around in One Shot
➡ Tip #4) Utilize the Format Painter & Format Copying
➡ Tip #5) Taking the “Work” out of Worksheets
- Shortcut Keys used in Tip #5:
- Insert a new Worksheet – Shift + F11
- Move one Worksheet to the left – CTRL + Page Up
- Move one Worksheet to the right – CTRL + Page Down
- Make a copy of a worksheet – select Worksheet then CTRL + “drag and drop”
And be sure to leave a comment if you have any questions! Also, stay tuned for tips #6 – #10 which will be posted as soon as I get a chance. Tips #6 – #10 can be found on part 2 of my tutorial by clicking the link below:
Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur
» This entry was filed under Excel and tagged with: Excel, Productivity, tutorial, video
32 Comments
Chris
You have really outdone yourself with this video. I need to watch this a few times to let it all sink in. Have you seen ASAP Utilities? (www.asap-utilities.com)
Dec 21st, 2006
Thomas Chapin
Now on digg:
http://www.digg.com/software/10_Awesome_Tips_for_Microft_Excel
Dec 21st, 2006
TOMAS
Hey, I’m glad you guys enjoyed the video. 🙂
I should have the second part up shortly! Some last minute shopping might have me busy this afternoon.
Dec 21st, 2006
TOMAS
Hey Chris, I wasn’t aware of ASAP Utilities but I can see where such plug-ins for Excel could come in really handy. Imagine a macro or add-in that you could distribute that could really turn your Excel into a contact management system, payroll system, et cetera. It does have VB editing and MS script editor capabilities, so you could pretty much design anything you want with it.
Dec 22nd, 2006
Chris
Yeah, ASAP Utilities is awesome for merging and fixing up email newsletter databases. We often get clients who wish to have first name and last name separated or together, and we can do it with that tool. you can also remove extra spaces, and do stuff like that.
Oh, and here’s wishing you a great Christmas!
Dec 22nd, 2006
TOMAS
Thanks Chris, I hope you have a great Christmas too!
Dec 23rd, 2006
Josh Padnick
Hey this is cool stuff! When I have more time to view this in detail, will definitely do. Very cool to see Viddler in use on a site like this!!
Dec 28th, 2006
E21
This was the best 15 minutes I spent learning Excel. Keep up the good work.
May 16th, 2007
Ralf
Chris,
I’d like to save your two videos on Excel on disk but I don’t know, how to do it.
Regards,
Ralf
May 30th, 2007
TOMAS
@ Ralf – You can download the videos by clicking the links below:
10ExcelTipsP1.avi (38.84 Mb)
10exceltipsp2.avi (60.65 Mb)
May 30th, 2007
TOMAS
@ Ralf – I just realized that the links I attached in my previous comment will not work. Give me some time to upload the videos to MediaFire.com and I will share the download link in a comment as soon as I’m done.
May 30th, 2007
TOMAS
@ Ralf – you can download the videos here:
10ExcelTipsP1.avi (38.84Mb)
10exceltipsp2.avi (60.65)
Jun 1st, 2007
Ruth
This is great – many thanks.
Jun 6th, 2007
majid memon bhan
thanks a lot
it is very good video tutorial.
Aug 21st, 2007
TOMAS
@ Majid and Ruth – your very welcome, I’m glad that you were able to make use of the tutorial!
Aug 30th, 2007
Shibaji
Probably the most useful tutorial in such a short time, I have ever seen.
Thanks for the same.
When cam we have the next ones?
Shibaji
Sep 29th, 2007
Jin
I could not download excel tips part 2 from mediafire.com. The file is not found on the server. Can you please fix the error?
Thanks for your hardwork and keep on the good work!
Oct 22nd, 2007
TOMAS
@ Shibaji – I’m glad you found the tutorials useful! I’m working on a new video right now, so stay tuned.
🙂
@ Jin – I’m not sure why part 2 has been taken off of MediaFire, but I will upload it again this weekend and let you know when it is available.
Oct 24th, 2007
TOMAS
@ Jin and everyone – I’ve enabled sharing via the Viddler website, so now you can visit the following pages and download the videos by clicking the “Download” tab located on the right sidebar (Note: you must be registered with Viddler and logged in):
Part 1
Part 2
Please let me know if there are any issues.
Nov 3rd, 2007
Daniel
I extremely agree about using Excel all the time…I managed my family expenses with Excell, I use it in my office for data recording and even problem solving…So, the 10 tips is applicable. Waiting for the next video.
Jan 22nd, 2008
raffaele
loved the tips. especially the moving cells, rows and columns without leaving a space. thanks
Jan 27th, 2008
TOMAS
@Daniel – Couldn’t agree more, no wonder Google and Apple put their own spin on spreadsheets. Actually, when VisiCalc (the first spreadsheet application) was introduced, some users claimed that it saved them 20 hours of work per week.
@raffaele – Glad you could make use of the moving cells tips, I used to hate dragging a cell or row/column then having to go back and delete whatever empty spaces were left behind – it’s a tip I use on a daily basis.
Jan 28th, 2008
sunil
its quite good
May 31st, 2008
Tyler @ Building Camelot
I’m a self proclaimed Excel master but you taught me a few things here. Great job on the video
Nov 26th, 2008
TOMAS
@Sunil – A belated thanks! 🙂
@Tyler – So glad to hear you picked up a few tips! BTW, feel free to send over any Excel tips I might have missed!
🙂
Nov 26th, 2008
serdarb
very nice post…
Jan 7th, 2009
TOMAS
@serdarb – Thank you very much, and nice site by the way! 🙂
Jan 16th, 2009
Todd
Very very useful! Thanks a lot for the tips! Now using Excel is more fun!
May 31st, 2009
TOMAS
@Todd – I’m glad you enjoyed the tips! 🙂
Jun 6th, 2009
joh
it was really great.. I’ve learn a lot from this video..but i hope i could find the video part II of this tutorial…
and then.. i hope you could post a tutorial for excel 2007..thanks and more power☻
Oct 26th, 2009
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