Hidden Tricks in Excel that You Must Know

Excel is one of the best companions for office workers out there, as it is probably the most versatile and affordable tool to help you to input and organize data, as well as to do a wide range of computations with these data. Excel is also quite easy because it includes a lot of in-software tips and tutorials.

Excel encompasses a lot of commands in its system. While most of these commands are fully introduced and addressed in many courses about Excel, some remain hidden to beginners. These hidden tricks are quite handy, as they allow you to do a range of things you thought you couldn’t do in Excel, such as create a new line in a single cell or make super quick calculations. Here are three super cool and hidden tricks that will make your Excel experience a whole lot smoother.

Adding a Line in a Single Cell in Excel

When you press enter in Excel, the cursor will immediately jump to the next cell instead of creating a new line like in Word. This can be quite annoying if you type a long string of texts since paragraphing really helps to add more clarity to the string. There is a trick, however, to add a line in a single cell just like how you do in Word, and that trick is super simple. All you have to do is to press Alt + Enter instead of just the Enter key, and the cursor will move one line below instead of jumping.

Quick Calculations in Excel

Usually, when you need to sum different sets of cells, you will have to write multiple formulas for each set. This step is quite easy, but it can be annoying and would take so much of your time. If there are too many sets of cells you need to write formulas for, this can become a tedious disaster. Fortunately, Excel has a hidden trick to quickly sum a set of cells. Simply select the first cell, then hold Ctrl while selecting the other cells, and Excel will automatically show the sum of the set, along with the average and the count in the status bar below. What a neat trick!

Freeze Pane in Excel

We usually reserve the first row of the entire spreadsheet for headings, which identifies what kinds of values will go in those columns. For huge Excel spreadsheets, you will usually scroll long past the heading row, so whenever you forget the kind of data you have to input in a certain column, you will have to scroll back up, which is super annoying and time-consuming. Excel has a cool trick called freeze pane, which allows you to freeze the heading row so that you will be able to view this row no matter how far down you have scrolled. To activate it, simply choose View->Window->Freeze Pane, and then select the row that you wish to freeze.

Excel offers you an effective and simple way to organize your data and do complex calculations. When you start out with the software, it will take you some time to get used to. But once you’ve gotten a hang of these secret tips and tricks, you’ll quickly learn to master the software.