If I were to hire an data analyst, I would simply ask them to write a complex IF formula in Excel. If they can write it, the interview progresses, else, they are out. In other words,
=IF(person_can_write_big_fat_IF_formula=TRUE, proceed_with_interview, say_thanks_and_call_next_person)
If you are able to write IF formulas for any situation, then you are bound to be awesome in Excel.
So, to test how well you know your IFs & Boolean functions, let me give you a small challenge.
Galo, one of our readers emailed this to me.
I would like to ask for your help in creating a tracker sheet for rewards program if they meet the qualifiers in order to avail it.
The conditions will be the following:A.If the attendance is equals to 0% then they will earn Php 1500
If the attendance is less than 3% then they will earn Php 1000 only.B.If the handling time less than 500 seconds reward will be Php 1000 (applicable only phone call request)
If the handling time less than 560 seconds reward will be Php 1000 (applicable only fax request)
Note: They can never have both phone and fax requestC.If there’s a commendation (1 or more) reward will be Php 1000
D.If the quality audit is 98% -100% reward will be Php 1500
If the quality audit is 96% -97.99 % reward will be Php 500Overall if they were able to meet all of the qualifiers they can earn Php 5000.
Download the sample data
Click here to download the sample data. Your objective is to fill column I with appropriate IF formula to calculate the Cash bonus component.
Post your answers
Once you complete the formula, share them with me & others using comments. Go ahead and tell me the answer.
Note: when posting your answers, make sure you add space after any < or > symbols. Or else, they will not show up. So instead of writing A1>10, write A1 > 10 or A1 GT 10. Sorry for the extra hassle.
Learn how to use IF formulas
IF formula is an important for any Excel analyst. Read these articles to learn more about IF formula & related formulas.
- IF formula – what is it and how to use it?
- IF formula – 5 examples
- Introduction to SUMIF & COUNTIF formulas
- Introduction to SUMIFS formula
- Logical & Conditional formulas in Excel
- More IF Formula examples & scenarios
Thanks to Galo for emailing this question.
8 Responses to “Top 5 keyboard shortcuts for Excel Charts”
As far as I remember (checked, again, 2 minutes ago) in my "Excel 2013" in order to select various chart elements I need to use the Arrow keys and not the TAB key.
Practically, the TAB key does nothing (within a Chart).
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Michael (Micky) Avidan
Thanks for pointing this out. This is how I remember it too, but when I was recording the video yesterday, only TAB key worked. MS must have changed the keys in Excel 2016. I have edited the post to include both keys.
The key navigation on charts is different in 2016.
TAB cycles through a layer of objects (SHIFT+TAB cycles backwards)
ENTER move down a layer
ESC moves up a layer
So on a column chart with title/legend/data labels if you select the plotarea the TAB will go through Title > Legend > Plotarea.
ENTER at plotarea will then select Vertical axis. Tab will take you through
Horizontal axis > gridlines > Series > Horizontal Axis.
ENTER with series selected will then allow you to TAB through individual data points and data labels.
If you ENTER on datalabels you can TAB through each data label.
ALT + F1 : to create default chart
ALT+E S T = CTRL + ALT + V, T : I find that easier to remember
I second what Michael already said about TAB and arrow keys. I can't help but think if this is related to the "," or ";" as separator. I prefer to use the chart tools - layout- drop down box, anyway.
Got to be F11 for instant charting. Highlight your data , hit F11 and voila! ?
Ctrl+1 is the most important chart shortcut. In fact, it works for any Excel object: whatever is selected, Ctrl+1 opens the task pane or dialog to format that object.
Somewhere along the line, maybe when Excel 2016 came out, the arrow keys stopped working to cycle through the elements of a chart. But what works is holding Ctrl while clicking the arrow keys. I haven't gotten used to the Tab and other keys, but as long as Ctrl+Arrow works, I'm good.
And F4 used to be so helpful when formatting a lot of charts. But since Excel 2007 came out, it has been mostly useless. It used to remember a whole set of changes at once, so I get that the newer modeless dialogs make that impractical. But now it only seems to work with formatting of lines and borders, and maybe fills. I find myself writing a lot of VBA one-liners in the Immediate Window to handle these tedious formatting tasks.
after clicking on a chart, is there a shortcut key to copy it?
Thank you for the Alt E S T - tip. This is more than a time saver. Because of dynamic charts or de-activated external references to data when you make the charts, you often have empty charts that are otherwise impossible to format. So this shortcut helps adressing that. I will work with it more and see if there remain some obstacles.