On IBM compatible PC’s, many characters that can’t be typed on a keyboard can be entered by holding down the ALT key and then using the numeric keypad to type the ASCII or Unicode code for that character. For example, holding down ALT and then typing 184 on the numeric keypad, prints ©, the copyright […]

Dates incorrectly entered or imported as text are a showstopper. We need our dates entered as date serial numbers to be able to leverage the Date Functions, use them in math and lookups, or even use them in PivotTables. So, often the first thing we need to do is fix Excel dates formatted as text. […]

Even though dates and time are actually stored as a regular number known as the date serial number, we can make use of extensive Excel date and time formatting options to display them just the way we want. We can access some quick date and time formats from the Home tab > in the Number […]

The objective of this post is to teach you how Excel handles date and time and provide you with all the tools you will need. It’s designed to be read in conjunction with the accompanying Excel file, which you can download below. Download the Files Enter your email address below to download the comprehensive Excel […]

As with most things in Excel, there are many ways to extract a list of unique or distinct values from a column of data. We’ll look at the options, and the pros and cons of each. Download the Workbook Enter your email address below to download the sample workbook. Get Workbook By submitting your email […]

Sometimes we want to find and remove duplicates in Excel, other times we just want to identify or highlight duplicates. There are loads of ways to tackle this in Excel, so let’s look at the options. Download the Workbook The workbook contains screenshots and notes so you can use it as a reference guide later, […]

Microsoft recently announced a project called Script Lab, previously known as ‘Add-In Playground’, which aims to help you learn how to write add-ins for Office. Script Lab is actually an add-in itself and runs in Excel, Word or PowerPoint and can be installed from the Office Store. Script Lab will run in Excel, Word, or […]

Excel Themes are a bundle of default colors, font styles and Shape effects. There are lots of built in Excel Themes available from the Page Layout menu: Hovering over a theme will give you a preview of the effect on your workbook. You’ll notice that different fonts will have an impact on your workbook layout. […]

Inserting, copying, moving, or cutting and pasting rows and columns is something we do every day in Excel. And there are loads of ways we can perform these repetitive tasks. Inserting Rows, Columns and Cells We can use the icons in the Insert menu on the Home tab: Or even the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+= (or […]