Excel is truly a multi-purpose package which can be used for calculating, tabulating, charting, analysing and many more.  Thus, it is not surprising that however much we learn excel from various sources, there is still something which we are unaware of. Below are some tips in Excel which might be unknown to quite a few.

To convert rows to column

• Enter data in rows (or columns).
• Select the data and copy it.
• Go to the destination cell, right-click and choose Paste Special.
• Check the ‘Transpose’ box and the data would be pasted into columns (or rows).

To hide the data that you enter in particular cell/cells

• Select the particular cell/cells whose data needs to be hidden.
• Right-click and choose Format Cells.
• Click on ‘Numbers’ tab, select the category Custom.
• Enter ;;; in the ‘Type’ input box. Click OK.
• This entry will temporarily hide the existing data. To make the data visible, just repeat the entire operation and delete the ;;; characters.

To enter a formula in several adjacent cells at once (Duplicating formulas):

• Select all the target cells, enter the required formula ( for instance =A1+A2).
• Press Ctrl + Enter instead of Enter and the result of the formula will be populated in all the target cells.

To remove Gridlines from the worksheet or View formulas:

• Go to Toolsà Options. Select the ‘View’ tab, if not already selected.
• Uncheck the Gridlines checkbox under Window Options.

Similarly, if you do not want the results of the formulas to be displayed immediately,  you can have the formulas intact by checking the ‘Formulas’ box.

To angle the entries in a cell

• Right-click on the cell/cells whose contents you need to place at an angle. Choose the Format Cells option.
• Click on the ‘Alignment’ tab and select the desired angle under the Orientation region.

To enter urls as text and to insert hyperlinks:

• If you do not want a url to be automatically hyperlinked, just type in a ’ before the url, as ’www.boddunan.com.
• Likewise, to show a text as a hyperlink,  go to the Insert, Hyperlink option and choose the desired file to which the text needs to be hyperlinked.

To keep the dates and times intact, in whatever format you enter:

• Give a space before entering the desired date or time in a cell. This will prevent the Excel from automatically calculating the days. For eg.  ‘4/5/09’ will give 39937 while ‘ 4/5/09’ will leave the date intact.

To minimise ribbon in MS Excel 2007

• Click on the tiny arrows on the Quick Access toolbar/Title bar to open up the drop down menu.
• Select the Minimise Ribbon option.