Join Strings

To join strings, use the & operator.

Note: to insert a space, use ” ”

Left

To extract the leftmost characters from a string, use the LEFT function.

Right

To extract the rightmost characters from a string, use the RIGHT function.

Mid

To extract a substring, starting in the middle of a string, use the MID function.

Note: started at position 5 (p) with length 3.

Len

To get the length of a string, use the LEN function.

Note: space (position 8) included!

Find

To find the position of a substring in a string, use the FIND function.

Note: string “am” found at position 3.

Substitute

To replace existing text with new text in a string, use the SUBSTITUTE function.

Year, Month, Day

To get the year of a date, use the YEAR function.

Note: use the MONTH and DAY function to get the month and day of a date.

Date Function

1. To add a number of days to a date, use the following simple formula.

2. To add a number of years, months and/or days, use the DATE function.

Note: the DATE function accepts three arguments: year, month and day. Excel knows that 6 + 2 = 8 = August has 31 days and rolls over to the next month (23 August + 9 days = 1 September).

Current Date & Time

To get the current date and time, use the NOW function.

Note: use the TODAY function to get the current date only. Use NOW()-TODAY() to get the current time only (and apply a Time format).

Hour, Minute, Second

To return the hour, use the HOUR function.

Note: use the MINUTE and SECOND function to return the minute and second.

Time Function

To add a number of hours, minutes and/or seconds, use the TIME function.

Note: Excel adds 2 hours, 10 + 1 = 11 minutes and 70 – 60 = 10 seconds.

Relative Reference

By default, Excel uses relative reference. See the formula in cell D2 below. Cell D2 references (points to) cell B2 and cell C2. Both references are relative.

1. Select cell D2, click on the lower right corner of cell D2 and drag it down to cell D5.

Cell D3 references cell B3 and cell C3. Cell D4 references cell B4 and cell C4. Cell D5 references cell B5 and cell C5. In other words: each cell references its two neighbors on the left.

Absolute Reference

See the formula in cell E3 below.

1. To create an absolute reference to cell H3, place a $ symbol in front of the column letter and row number of cell H3 ($H$3) in the formula of cell E3.

2. Now we can quickly drag this formula to the other cells.

The reference to cell H3 is fixed (when we drag the formula down and across). As a result, the correct lengths and widths in inches are calculated.

Mixed Reference

Sometimes we need a combination of relative and absolute reference (mixed reference).

1. See the formula in cell F2 below.

2. We want to copy this formula to the other cells quickly. Drag cell F2 across one cell, and look at the formula in cell G2.

Do you see what happens? The reference to the price should be a fixed reference to column B. Solution: place a $ symbol in front of the column letter of cell B2 ($B2) in the formula of cell F2. In a similar way, when we drag cell F2 down, the reference to the reduction should be a fixed reference to row 6. Solution: place a $ symbol in front of the row number of cell B6 (B$6) in the formula of cell F2.

Result:

Note: we don’t place a $ symbol in front of the row number of B2 (this way we allow the reference to change from B2 (Jeans) to B3 (Shirts) when we drag the formula down). In a similar way, we don’t place a $ symbol in front of the column letter of B6 (this way we allow the reference to change from B6 (Jan) to C6 (Feb) and D6 (Mar) when we drag the formula across).

3. Now we can quickly drag this formula to the other cells.

The references to column B and row 6 are fixed.

If Function

The IF function checks whether a condition is met, and returns one value if TRUE and another value if FALSE.

1. Select cell C1 and enter the following function.

The IF function returns Correct because the value in cell A1 is higher than 10.

And Function

The AND Function returns TRUE if all conditions are true and returns FALSE if any of the conditions are false.

1. Select cell D1 and enter the following formula.

The AND function returns FALSE because the value in cell B1 is not higher than 5. As a result the IF function returns Incorrect.

Or Function

The OR function returns TRUE if any of the conditions are TRUE and returns FALSE if all conditions are false.

1. Select cell E1 and enter the following formula.

The OR function returns TRUE because the value in cell A1 is higher than 10. As a result the IF function returns Correct.

General note: the AND and OR function can check up to 255 conditions.

Count

To count the number of cells that contain numbers, use the COUNT function.

Countif

To count cells based on one criteria (for example, higher than 9), use the following COUNTIF function.

Countif

To count cells based on multiple criteria (for example, green and higher than 9), use the following COUNTIFS function.

Sum

To sum a range of cells, use the SUM function.

Sumif

To sum cells based on one criteria (for example, higher than 9), use the following SUMIF function (two arguments).

To sum cells based on one criteria (for example, green), use the following SUMIF function (three arguments, last argument is the range to sum).

Sumifs

To sum cells based on multiple criteria (for example, blue and green), use the following SUMIFS function (first argument is the range to sum).

General note: in a similar way, you can use the AVERAGEIF and AVERAGEIFS function to average cells based on one or multiple criteria.

1. Open a workbook.

2. On the File tab, click Save As.

3. Click Browse.

4. Click on the Tools button and click General Options.

5. In the Password to open box, enter a password and click OK.

6. Reenter the password and click OK.

Note: this feature also encrypts your Excel file. If you lose or forget the password, it cannot be recovered.

7. Enter a file name and click Save.

It requires a password to open this Excel file now. The password for the downloadable Excel file is “easy”.

Paste

Most of the time, you’ll simply need to paste static Excel data in a Word document.

1. Select the Excel data.

2. Right click, and then click Copy (or press CTRL + c).

3. Open a Word document.

4. Press CTRL + v.

5. Click the icon in the upper left corner of the table and add borders.

Result.

Note: To delete the table, right click the icon in the upper left corner, and then click Delete Table.

Paste Link

You can also link the source data in Excel with the destination data in Word. If you change the data in Excel, the data in Word is updated automatically.

1. Repeat steps 1 to 3 above.

2. In Word, on the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Paste.

3. Click Paste Special.

The Paste Special dialog box appears.

4. Click Paste link, HTML Format.

5. Click OK.

6. Click the icon in the upper left corner of the table and add borders.

Result.

7. Change the Excel data.

Result.

Note: In Word, right click the icon in the upper left corner of the table, and then click Linked Worksheet Object, Links to launch the Links dialog box. Here, you can break the link, change the location of the Excel file, etc.

Print a Worksheet

To print a worksheet in Excel, execute the following steps.

1. On the File tab, click Print.

2. To preview the other pages that will be printed, click ‘Next Page’ or ‘Previous Page’ at the bottom of the window.

3. To print the worksheet, click the big Print button.

What to Print

Instead of printing the entire worksheet, you can also only print the current selection.

1. First, select the range of cells you want to print.

2. Next, under Settings, select Print Selection.

3. To print the selection, click the big Print button.

Note: you can also print the active sheets (first select the sheets by holding down CTRL and clicking the sheet tabs) or print the entire workbook. Use the boxes next to Pages (see first screenshot) to only print a few pages of your document. For example, 2 to 2 only prints the second page.

Multiple Copies

To print multiple copies, execute the following steps.

1. Use the arrows next to the Copies box.

2. If one copy contains multiple pages, you can switch between Collated and Uncollated. For example, if you print 6 copies, Collated prints the entire first copy, then the entire second copy, etc. Uncollated prints 6 copies of page 1, 6 copies of page 2, etc.

Orientation

You can switch between Portrait Orientation (more rows but fewer columns) and Landscape Orientation (more columns but fewer rows).

Page Margins

To adjust the page margins, execute the following steps.

1. Select one of the predefined margins (Normal, Wide or Narrow) from the Margins drop-down list.

2. Or click the ‘Show Margins’ icon at the bottom right of the window. Now you can drag the lines to manually change the page margins.

Scaling

If you want to fit more data on one page, you can fit the sheet on one page. To achieve this, execute the following steps.

1. Select ‘Fit Sheet on One Page’ from the Scaling drop-down list.

Note: you can also shrink the printout to one page wide or one page high. Click Custom Scaling Options to manually enter a scaling percentage or to fit the printout to a specific number of pages wide and tall. Be careful, Excel doesn’t warn you when your printout becomes unreadable.

Basic

Select cell B2.

1. To select the entire range, press CTRL + a (if you press CTRL + a one more time Excel selects the entire sheet).

2. To copy the range, press CTRL + c (to cut a range, press CTRL + x).

3. Select cell A6 and press CTRL + v to paste this range.

4. To undo this operation, press CTRL + z

Moving

Select cell B2.

1. To quickly move to the bottom of the range, hold down CTRL and press ↓

2. To quickly move to the right of the range, hold down CTRL and press →

Try it yourself. Hold down CTRL and press the arrow keys to move from edge to edge.

Selecting

Select cell A1.

1. To select cells while moving down, hold down SHIFT and press ↓ a few times.

2. To select cells while moving to the right, hold down SHIFT and press → a few times.

Formulas

Select cell F2.

1. To quickly insert the SUM function, press ATL + =, and press Enter.

2. Select cell F2, hold down SHIFT and press ↓ two times.

3. To fill a formula down, press CTRL + d (down).

Note: in a similar way, you can fill a formula right by pressing CTRL + r (right).

Formatting

Select the range B2:F4.

1. To launch the ‘Format cells’ dialog box, press CTRL + 1

2. Press TAB and press ↓ two times to select the Currency format.

3. Press TAB and press ↓ two times to set the number of decimal places to 0.

4. Press Enter.

Result:

5. To quickly bold a range, select the range and press CTRL + b

Data Validation Example

In this example, we restrict users to enter a whole number between 0 and 10.

Create Data Validation Rule

To create the data validation rule, execute the following steps.

1. Select cell C2.

2. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Data Validation.

On the Settings tab:

3. In the Allow list, click Whole number.

4. In the Data list, click between.

5. Enter the Minimum and Maximum values.

Input Message

Input messages appear when the user selects the cell and tell the user what to enter.

On the Input Message tab:

1. Check ‘Show input message when cell is selected’.

2. Enter a title.

3. Enter an input message.

Error Alert

If users ignore the input message and enter a number that is not valid, you can show them an error alert.

On the Error Alert tab:

1. Check ‘Show error alert after invalid data is entered’.

2. Enter a title.

3. Enter an error message.

4. Click OK.

Data Validation Result

1. Select cell C2.

2. Try to enter a number higher than 10.

Result:

Note: to remove data validation from a cell, select the cell, on the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Data Validation, and then click Clear All. You can use Excel’s Go To Special feature to quickly select all cells with data validation.