Microsoft Excel is one of the essential tools used at home or office in order to organize data, that can be retrieved and updated effectively. However there are many users, that are not aware of some of the best tips or shortcuts to work more efficiently.
Some of the tips to work efficiently in excel can be listed as follow:
Tip1:
Always know what you have to do. At times it happens that people start working on Excel files and start entering and manipulating data in it. Although in such cases they reach to what they were targeting but often it results in redundancy of data and high usage of functions. It is good to understand what kind of data you have and what all information can be retrieved from it. Why to waste time fetching something which cannot be fetched from the given data.
Tip2:
Know more and more about the application. Excel shows a very little about it when you look it at a glance but when you go through the various menus or Ribbons you will find a lot in it. If you are new to Excel then make a habit of giving at least 15-20 minutes daily in browsing the new features and the functions available in Excel. I would suggest you to go by function categories. First try all the lookup functions as they are the one’s which are mostly used then the mathematical functions and so on.
Tip3:
Try using the Excel shortcuts. Though the interface has changed a lot after Office XP but the key combinations for basic Excel operations still are the same. For example if you have to apply filter to a data then you can do just press Alt+A+T instead of following the long path of clicking the Data Ribbon and then clicking the Filter button. Keyboard shortcuts are always helpful in increasing the productivity regardless of the application you are working on.
Tip4:
Try keeping the file size small. File size drastically increases by the usage of formulas. At times we drag the formulas to rows where we do not have any relative value to be calculated. Avoid this; keep in mind that every formula gets calculated whenever you press enter after entering something in a cell. If your file has to have numerous formulas then keep the Auto-Calculation OFF so that the formula calculation doesn’t stop you working and formulas gets calculated only when you want by pressing F9 key.
Tip5:
Check the resources of your computer as Excel requires lots of them while performing calculations. Also make sure that you keep the unnecessary Add-ons disabled as they may hamper your work and speed.
