Microsoft Excel Tricks and Tips

Easy ways to get more from Excel

4 : General Questions

Sometimes I want to see more of my worksheet, is there anyway that I can get rid of the tool bars and make my worksheet bigger?

Yes. Click on the View menu in the toolbar. Then click on Full Screen. This will remove all of Excel’s screen elements except for the main toolbar. But you will get a full screen view.

I want to slant the text of a cell, how?

To slant the text of a cell you would have to select the cell with the contents you want to rotate by clicking on it once. Then make sure to have the Chart menu open. If it is not, right-click anywhere on the toolbar and click Chart. From the Chart menu, click either "Angle Text Upward" or "Angle Text Downward."

Please could you tell me how I make my toolbar buttons bigger?

Of Course, open the Tools menu. Click Customize, and then click the Options tab. Choose Large Icons, and finally click the Close button.

How do I get to the Special button in Excel?

Firstly you open the Edit menu, Click Go To, followed by the Special button from the menu that appears, choose the contents of the cells that you want to select. Click on OK. Excel will now only select the items you chose form the Special menu.

What do the formulas errors mean in Excel?

When you type a formula into Excel , an error occurs when, rather than seeing your calculated value, you get a strange entry in all uppercase letters beginning with (#) and ending with (!) or, in one case, a question mark (?) – This entry is known as an ‘error value.’ The error value lets you know that some part of your formula is not correct and that Excel can’t perform the calculation. Error values can contaminate other formulas in the worksheet. If a formula returns an error value to a cell and a second formula in another cell refers to the value calculated by the first formula, the second formula returns the same error value and so on down the line. When you get an error in your formula cell, you’ll need to determine what caused the error and fix it straight away!

How do I lock cells so that the contents within them cannot be changed?

To lock cells in an Excel spreadsheet: First, you can select your entire sheet and ‘unlock’ all the cells (FORMAT/Cells/’Protection’ tab – uncheck ‘Lock cells’) Then, Lock the cells you want to stop someone from changing. Highlight the cells to lock, then FORMAT/Cells/’Protection’ tab – check the ‘Lock Cells’ box Protect your sheet – this is what turns on the ‘lock’ setting and prohibits someone from changing the cells you previously locked TOOLS/Protection/Protect Sheet – uncheck the ‘Select locked cells’ and be sure the ‘Select unlocked cells’ is checked. This will allow someone to only select the unlocked cells that you want them to use in the sheet, Click OK when finished. You can enter a password to unprotect the sheet so that someone would need to know the password to unprotect the cells. REMEMBER the password – if you forget it, you won’t be able to unprotect the sheet’s cells

How do I Run a Macro by Clicking a Cell?

All you have to do is select the cell you want to run the macro and hold down your Shift key and go to Edit>Copy Picture then select "As shown on screen" from the "Copy Picture" dialog then hold down your Shift key again and go Edit and click "Paste Picture". Now right click on the cell picture and "Assign Macro".

How do I sort out my blank row?

The quickest way to remove all blank rows is to select your range, then go to Data>Sort.

I have quite a few workbooks, how do I print them?

If you have quite a few Workbooks to print, go to File>Open from within Excel, select the Workbook(s) using the Ctrl key, then right click and choose Print.