Here are some Microsoft Excel tips you can use to inch closer to mastery

Delete blank cells

You need to be careful when deleting blanks as it can alter table data significantly

After you’re done creating a table, you might notice some blank cells sometimes that you might need to remove. Luckily, Excel offers a simple way to get rid of those quickly.

1. Select the range where you wish to remove the blanks

2. Navigate to the Home tab > Formats > Find & Select > Go to Special

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3. A dialogue box will pop up. Here, check the ‘Blank’ box and hit OK

4. You’ll now see that all the blanks on your table have been selected

5. Right-click on any of the blank cells and hit delete

6. Choose where you wish to shift cells – either left or right – and click OK

Do note that choosing one of these options can significantly alter the data within your table, so only use this method of deletion if you’re sure of what you’re doing. Regardless, if things do get messed up, you can always hit Ctrl + Z.

Add a diagonal line to a cell

Adding a diagonal border through a cell is a great alternative to striking through text

Striking through text is great but there’s another method you can use. This one involves the border function:

1. Click on the cell where you wish to get a horizontal line slashed across

2. Right-click the cell to select Format Cells

3. A dialogue box will pop up. Here, you need to navigate to ‘Border’ from the tabs at the top

4. Select the style you wish to see your diagonal line in and hit the diagonal line icon

Transfer Excel data into Word

The whole point of the Microsoft Office package is that you can easily use all of the apps in it together. You might find the need to move your Excel data to Word when text isn’t the best way to save or communicate something.

Just select the chart you wish to move to word from Excel, hit Ctrl + C to copy, and paste it into Word using Ctrl + V.

But it doesn’t end there. If you make any changes in Excel to the chart, you can automatically refresh the chart in Word. In Word, Go to Chart Design or Chart Tools Design > Data > Refresh Data.

Change rows to columns (and vice versa)

What if you created a whole row with data but then realised it’d look better as a column? Instead of retyping it all, you could use the Paste Special function:

1. Select your rows or columns

2. Press Ctrl + C to copy (or Ctrl + X to cut) them

3. Right-click a new cell and under Paste Options, click on the Transpose icon

Tag someone in a sheet

Commenting @ followed by a team member’s name on a cell notifies a team member in Excel

Remember when we said that Google Docs is better at collaboration? That doesn’t mean Excel is terribly bad at it. Take the tag function for example. Just right-click on the cell you wish to bring someone’s attention to, click New Comment, and type @ followed by a team member’s name. Just note that you’ll have to be working with a team for this to work.

Pull data from another sheet

If you wish to pull some data from another sheet (not all), then Excel has got you covered.

1. Select the cells you want your data to appear

2. Enter any formula like “=AVERAGE()” into the formula bar

3. Switch to the sheet you’d like to pull data from

4. Select the required cells and hit Enter