Microsoft Excel is a very powerful and popular spreadsheet application. This article will explore some of the most important Excel hits that can help you work faster. You will also find some tips on how to be more productive with your time, as well as some helpful keyboard shortcuts to make your life easier!

What is Microsoft Excel?

In the business world, Microsoft Excel is the go-to application for organising and making sense of data. It has evolved to become a powerful and popular spreadsheet management tool that business owners can use to do everything from planning budgets to making taxes. Try these 5 Microsoft Excel hints and tips to make your life easier.

1. Conditional formatting

This is the quickest way to bring your data into focus. In addition, you can use conditional formatting to make the important information stand out. For example, if you want to highlight all of your positive numbers in red and negative numbers in blue, follow these steps. 

2. Navigating with ease

Scrolling through a huge spreadsheet is a nightmare, but you can quickly move to the last cell with data with this simple shortcut. Hold down CTRL and then press a directional key. For example, if you want to view the bottom of a huge spreadsheet, click CTRL and then the down key.

By adding the SHIFT key to this, you can also highlight all cells in any direction. Again, this is much easier than selecting and dragging your mouse over hundreds and hundreds of cells.

3. Add up a number sequence fast

Writing the SUM formula for each range is slow, particularly if you have many columns or rows to consider. Instead, try using the AutoSum feature. Highlight the number sequence and click the AutoSum button, and Excel will create the SUM formula for you.

4. Recover lost work

Have you ever been editing a file when the programme or your computer crashes? It's the stuff nightmares are made of, but don't worry, all is not lost. Excel automatically saves your work in the background every 20 minutes, so there is a chance you'll be able to salvage your work. 

Simply head to File > Info > Manage Versions > Recover Unsaved Workbooks. You can then select the latest saved version, and hopefully, you won't have lost too much work.

5. Get a better view

If your spreadsheet has lots of rows and columns, as soon as you scroll away from cell A1, you'll have to guess what the field name is. A really simple solution to this problem is to use the freeze panes feature. 

This allows you to freeze any number of columns or rows, so you can still see the field names when you scroll. To do this, click on the cell below where you want to freeze and then head to View > Freeze Panes.

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