Six Time-Saving Tips for Excel 2007

Here is a list of six tips that will save you time and effort when working with your Excel 2007 spreadsheets.

Tip 1: Create a Formatting Style

A style in Excel 2007 is a combination of formatting options that is named and saved as part of your current spreadsheet file. The new style can then quickly be applied to data and cells in the spreadsheet.

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Tip 2: Create a Template

An Excel template is a file containing data and formatting options that are commonly used in many or all of your spreadsheets. Once the template contains these commonly used items, it is used as a starter file for other worksheets.

Tip 3: Copy Formulas with the Fill Handle

It is common in Excel to use the same function or formula several times. Rather than recreating a function or formula each time you need it, you can use the fill handle to copy formulas from one cell to other cells in the spreadsheet. Doing so can save you an enormous amount of time as well as eliminating potential errors if you create each formula over and over again.

Tip 4: Copy Formatting with the Format Painter

Excel's Format Painter allows you to quickly copy formatting from one part of a sheet to another, or to another sheet in the same workbook. One common use is if you are extending a spreadsheet to accommodate new data and need to format the new cells to match the original data area.

Tip 5: Select Non-Adjacent Cells

By selecting multiple cells in Excel you can delete data, apply formatting such as borders or shading, or apply other options to large areas of a worksheet all at one time.

Tip 6: Navigate a Worksheet using the Name Box

While it is easy enough to use the scroll bars or even just the mouse to move around a small worksheet that uses only a few columns and rows, for larger ones (remember there are over 16,000 columns and more than one million rows in a single Excel 2007 worksheet) endless scrolling becomes tedious and wastes a lot of time. The name box allows you to quickly jump from one area to another using cell references.