the MOST

While I was teaching a class on Logical functions, a student asked if it was possible to make a logical function case sensitive.  I was stumped.  Fortunately, my boss found the answer while the class moved on to other skills.  Hooray Ben!
Ben’s answer - the EXACT function.  EXACT evaluates whether two text strings (numbers and [...]

[Read more →]

I couldn’t possibly count the number of times I’ve accidentally typed teh and watched as Word magically rearranged the letters to spell the.  Nor can I count the number of times Word has made up for my inability to apply the i before e rule correctly.  Word is constantly correcting words like receive for me without my [...]

[Read more →]

Maybe you’ve had that one Excel workbook that you’ve used for years. It’s probably even traveled with you from one version of Excel to the next and even outlasted a desktop or two. But then one day the workbook with years worth of data won’t open. You click on it, nothing, you try to open [...]

[Read more →]

If you want to view two different Excel spreadsheets at the same time and it seems like you can’t, well, you can. If you have one Excel file open and then you open another, it replaces the previous one and you’ll end up jumping back and forth between your spreadsheets. Instead, view them both side [...]

[Read more →]

After last week’s post about formulas and functions essentials, it occurred to me that people might wonder how they can learn functions on their own.  The way I see it, there are two steps.  The first is to find out what function you need to learn.  The second is to find out exactly how the function [...]

[Read more →]

Formulas and functions are great features in Excel, that can make your life a lot easier.  But if you don’t know some of the essentials, they can be really frustrating.  Here are a five things I think everyone should know about formulas and functions:

When you enter a number over 999 in a formula or function, [...]

[Read more →]

In honor of Earth Day, we decided to do an Earth friendly blog post.  In searching around for articles on how to be green with computers we stumbled across this article -  Living Green at the Office.
One of the suggestions is about cutting down on the number of pages you print.  Here are instructions on how [...]

[Read more →]

As you work daily with your computer, probably somewhere in the back of your mind you think to yourself, “I’d like to know Excel a little better.” Then you just end up watching a YouTube video a friend sent you. Now you can do both! Watch YouTube and learn to be more proficient with Excel.
If [...]

[Read more →]

Last week I learned a really cool Excel keyboard shortcut I’d like to share with you.  It lets you enter an AutoSum function really fast.  Much faster than going to the ribbon and clicking on the AutoSum button.
Keyboard Shortcut:
Alt + =
Press Enter to complete the formula.
What it does:
Inserts the Sum function and guesses what you [...]

[Read more →]

Another no value cell issue came up last week. This time about how to reference a blank cell when making a formula. This is done by using open and close quotes with nothing between them. No space, no 0, no nothing. It is just “”. 
Example: You have values assigned to groups one, two, and three, [...]

[Read more →]