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Smart & Easy Software Tips, Tricks & Techniques:
5 Excel Data Entry Tips, Issue #42
Publisher: Dawn Bjork Buzbee mailto:Dawn@SoftwarePro.com
The Software Pro(R), Certified Microsoft Office Expert
http://www.SoftwarePro.com
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Data entry is the heart of Excel. If you can't enter data into your worksheets quickly and accurately, you can not easily use the tools to analyze and report on the data. Excel does a lot of things right when it comes to data entry, but some things are not intuitive. Even advanced Excel users sometimes pick more complicated approaches than needed.
In This Issue: 5 Excel Data Entry Tips
* Fast Entry Shortcuts
* Add a Hard Return to a Cell's Contents
* Keep Leading Zeros When You Enter Data
* Customizing Excel 2003
* Move to the Last Row in a List
* How to Copy and Paste More than One Item at a Time
Note: These tips and shortcuts apply to Excel 2007, 2003, and earlier
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Fast Entry Shortcuts
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Try these quick and easy shortcuts to enter data in Excel:
[Ctrl] + ;
enters current date
[Ctrl] + '(single quote)
repeats data from cell or row immediately above
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Add a Hard Return/[Enter] to a Cell's Contents
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When entering long paragraphs of text, if you want to stay in the same cell but move to a new line, you can not just press [Enter]. This will just move you to the next cell. Instead, to create a line break or new line in the same cell, just press [Alt] + [Enter].
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Keep Leading Zeros When You Enter Data
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Do you enter product codes, lease numbers, or other identifiers that begin with one or more leading zeros? When you enter this type of data, Excel assumes that the entries are numbers and deletes the leading zeros. To convince Excel to let you enter values with leading zeros, format your worksheet cells as text and not numbers. There are 2 different approaches to try:
Text Approach #1:
To change each entry to a text format, type an apostrophe (') in front of the data. If you have a lot of data, however, this is a cumbersome approach because you will need to add the apostrophe at the beginning of each entry not just the data with leading zeros. Otherwise, your list will not sort correctly.
Text Approach #2:
To prepare for data entry, format selected cells as text.
1. Select the cells (even an entire column) that will contain numbers stored as text.
2. Right-click on the selection and choose Format Cells then click the Number tab.
3. Click Text in the Category list and then pick OK to apply.
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Customizing Excel 2003 and More
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How well are you really using Microsoft Excel and other Office 2003 programs? Does it ever seem that Office is working against you? Do you feel like you are taking too many steps to get results? Even if you are an advanced user, do you wonder if you might be using the more complicated route to complete your projects? Would you like clear ways to customize and organize Office so that it is easier to move forward?
Pick up your copy of "37+ Ways to Customize Microsoft Office 2003" today! Discover more at:
http://www.softwarepro.com/tools.htm#37_Ways
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Move to the Last Row in a List
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Instead of potentially scrolling hundreds or thousands of rows to get to the bottom of a list to add new data, press [Ctrl] + [Down] to go to the last cell used in the active column.
Additional Excel navigation shortcuts for a list:
[Ctrl] + [Up] to take you to the first cell in the active column
[Ctrl] + [Right] to move to the last cell used in the current row
[Ctrl] + [Left] to go to the first cell used in the active row
These and other Excel shortcuts for selecting and navigating are available to you as a handy "cheat sheet" at:
http://www.softwarepro.com/tips/handouts.htm#excel
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How to Copy and Paste More than One Item at a Time
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If you frequently want to copy items from one Excel workbook into another--or even into another application like Word--it is time-consuming to copy and paste each cell, object, or image one by one.
Instead use the Office Clipboard which keeps track of the last set of items that you cut or copied (24 items in Office 2007, 2003, and XP/2002). The big plus is that the Office Clipboard is shared by each Office application.
To turn on the Office Clipboard in Excel 2002 and Excel 2003:
1. Choose Edit > Office Clipboard.
To turn on the Office Clipboard in Excel 2007:
1. Click on the Home tab.
2. The Clipboard group is at the far left.
3. Click once on the button in the bottom-right corner of the group to open the Office Clipboard task pane.
Each item that you cut or copy will now appear in the Office Clipboard. Follow any of these steps to use the Clipboard:
* Click on the Options button to customize how you want to work with the Office Clipboard.
* Click an item to paste it into your worksheet.
* Click Paste All to paste every time in the Clipboard into your worksheet.
* Click Clear All to empty every item in the Clipboard.
* To delete individual items, hover the mouse pointer over an item, click the down arrow that appears next to it, and choose Delete to remove it.
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Improve and speed up Excel data entry and navigation with these tips and shortcuts.
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Please pass this along to others who may appreciate it!
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