Quick Excel Tips
Formatting
1. Press Ctrl+1 (that's a "one" not an "L") to open the Format Cells dialog window
for easy access to all the cell formatting options.
2. When Excel automatically formats a number as a date, you can change it back to
a number using the shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+~. The tilde (~) is usually in the upper
left of your keyboard.
3. Press Ctrl+E to use Flash Fill for quickly reformatting lists. Watch How to Use
Flash Fill on our YouTube channel.
4. Make multiple columns the same width by selecting each of the columns and
then changing the width of just one of them. This applies to rows as well.
5. Double-click on the column or row sizing handle (the line between the column
letters or row numbers) to auto-size the column or row to the longest entry (some
exceptions with wrapped cells).
6. Undo automatic formatting after inserting a row by selecting "Clear Formatting"
from the paintbrush icon that appears next to the row
7. If you see weird or magical stuff going on with formatting, it may be due to
conditional formatting. Or, it could be that Excel is applying formatting
automatically (which it does sometimes because it thinks it's so smart).
8. Trying to get a title centered across a table? Use the Center Across Selection
format rather than one large merged cell.
9. Apply text formats to part of a cell by highlighting that portion in the formula bar
before applying the formatting. (This is how you can do stuff like displaying H2O,
where the 2 is a subscript)
10.Use the "Shrink to Fit" cell format option to avoid showing ##### in a cell
containing a date.
11.Conditional Formatting: Highlight odd numbered rows with this formula:
=MOD(ROW(),2)=1
12.Create a Custom Number Format to display values using special formats
13.Custom Number Formats - The custom date format [h]:mm can be used to
display times that are greater than 24 hours, like 42:36.
14.Custom Number Formats - Display numbers as fractions using the format code #
??/100 to display 5.2 as 5 20/100 and ?/2 to display 5.2 as 10/2 (note the
automatic rounding)
15.Custom Number Formats - Display feet and inches as 8 3/12 using the format
code # ??/12 (rounded to the nearest inch)
16.Custom Number Formats - Display temperature with the degrees symbol using
the format code: #.##"°"
17.Custom Number Formats - Display "kg" units (or other labels) within a cell without
causing the value to convert to text using a format code like #.## "kg"
18.Custom Number Formats - Display a number with leading zeros using a format
code like 00000 to display 345 as 00345
19.Custom Number Formats - Add a carriage return within a custom number format
by pressing Ctrl+j
