A Few Excellent Tips
Excel is one program that I need some help with. It seems I am always moving keyboard to mouse, back to keyboard, back to mouseback and forth. It can also be confusing if you are dealing with a large document. Quite often, the content is multiple pages, and if all the information is on the first row or column, it gets confusing. So instead of doing lots of scrolling up and down or back and forth, follow these few tips.
To Lock the first or Header Row or Column on Screen
1. On the worksheet, do the following:
To lock rows, select the row below the row or rows you want to keep visible.
To lock columns, select the column to the right of the column or columns you want to keep visible.
To lock both rows and columns, click the cell below and to the right of the rows and columns you want to keep visible.
2. On the View tab, in the Window group, click the arrow below Freeze Panes.
3. Do one of the following:
To lock one row only, click Freeze Top Row
To lock one column only, click Freeze First Column
To lock more than one row or column, or to lock both rows and columns at the same time, click Freeze Panes.
Please note, you can only freeze rows at the top and columns on the left side. You cannot freeze rows or columns in the middle of the worksheet.
How to Print the First or Header Row or Column on Every Page in Excel
Now, you have learned how to keep them visible on screen, you just need to know how to print them out.
1. Go to Page Layout and click Print Titles under Page Setup.
2. In the Page Setup, under Print Titles, click the red arrow icon next to rows to repeat at top.
3. Use the arrow to Select the First Row, or the row you want to repeat on each page that is printed.
4. Click the Red Arrow icon again and you will return o the Page Setup Screen. Click OK.
5. To have the first column print on each page, repeat the process choosing Select the First Column in step three.
Hopefully this will help to lift some confusion when dealing with Excel, especially if the pages get mixed up when you take them off the printer.
A Few Shortcuts Too
| Move right to left, cell by cell | Tab |
| Move up and down, cell by cell | Enter |
| Erase data in current cell | Backspace |
| Return to the beginning of the row | Home |
| Enter the date | Ctrl + ; (semicolon) |
| Enter the time | Ctrl + Shift + : (colon) |
| Start a formula | = (equal sign) |
| Check the spelling of titles or words | F7 |
| within the cells | |
| Find out about the style within the cell | ALT + ' (apostrophe) |
| Display the Format Cells dialog box | Ctrl + 1 |
| Apply the general number format | Ctrl + Shift + ~ |
| Turn numbers into dollars | Ctrl + Shift + $ |
| Make numbers a percentage | Ctrl + Shift + % |
| Apply a border | Ctrl + Shift + & |
I hope these tips will help you save some time and cut down on the confusion. And remember, the more you use the shortcuts, the easier it will be to remember them.
*Please note that these tips work for Office 2007 and may vary with other versions.