As an analyst (or manager), I bet a good portion of your Excel time is spent writing formulas and getting the results.
So today, let us learn 5 important keyboard shortcuts that will save you a lot of time and help you write better formulas.
- F2: Edit a formula cell. When you select a cell and press F2, Excel places cursor at the end and lets you edit the cell value / formula.
- F3: Paste names in to formula. When you have a lot of names, often remembering them can be tricky. Whenever you want to type a name, press F3 instead. Excel will show a list of all names and pick what you want.
- Tab: Auto-complete functions, names, structural references. As you start typing a formula, Excel shows auto-complete suggestions. Use arrow keys to select the function, name or structural reference you want, Press Tab key to let Excel type it for you. You can save a ton of time by just arrow key + tabbing.
- F4: Switch reference styles – Absolute > Mixed > Relative > Absolute. When typing formulas, often you may want to change a certain cell reference to Absolute or Mixed or Relative. You can use F4 key to do the switching. Just place cursor inside the range / cell address and press F4 to cycle thru all available reference styles. (more: Guide to Excel cell references and when to use what?)
- ALT + ESF: Paste Formulas only. If you just want to make a copy of the formulas and omit cell formatting etc., copy the cells with formulas, go elsewhere, press ALT + E and then S and F. And you get a copy of the formulas alone.
Bonus Shortcuts & Tricks:
Writing and editing formulas is such an important part of Excel that there are many other useful shortcuts and tricks. Here are a few of my favorites:
- F9: Evaluate selected portion of a formula. Select a portion of a formula and press F9 to evaluate it alone. See the results and debug easily. (related: debug formulas using F9)
- CTRL + ` : Show formulas. Very useful when explaining your worksheet to others. Press CTRL + ` (back quote, usually the key above tab on left) to on / off show formulas mode. (related: auditing formulas & spreadsheets)
- Use mouse to edit formula ranges: When you select a cell with formula and edit it (by pressing F2), you can see these blue, green, red rectangles around the cells to which the formula is talking. You can move these rectangles or resize them to edit the formula input ranges. Very useful and very time saving. (more: Using mouse to save time in Excel)
- Fill down / side ways: Once you have a formula in a cell, you can drag it down or sideways (using mouse) to fill the formula down or across.
What are your favorite shortcuts for writing / editing formulas?
I am sure there are tons more shortcuts that I have omitted. So go ahead share your favorite ones in comments. Teach us something new. Go.
Also check out: Comprehensive list of Excel keyboard shortcuts.
15 Responses to “Christmas Gift List – Set your budget and track gifts using Excel”
[...] Christmas Gift List – Set your budget and track gifts using Excel … [...]
I'm confused: if you spend $10, and your budget is $40, shouldn't the amount in the "Within Budget?" column stay black, since you didn't go over budget?
In other words, since we overspent on the electronic photo frame, shouldn't the $8 cell turn red?
@JP.. maybe Steven is encouraging consumerism... ?
I havent realized it earlier, but now I see it. If you unprotect the sheet, you can change the formula in Column I to =IF(G13=0;" ";F13-G13) from =IF(G13=0;" ";G13-F13), that should correct the behavior.
Thanks Chandoo. I thought of making a shopping list spreadsheet for Christmas, but this is neat so I think I'll use this instead.
Chandoo & Steven thanks for this spreadsheet. But for the sake of a person who has been staring at this megaformula in vain for the last 40 mins and not afraid to ask, would it be possible for you to walk us through the logic used here?
=SUM(SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($K$13:$K$62,ROW($K$13:$K$62)-MIN(ROW($K$13:$K$62)),0,1)),--($K$13:$K$62="-"))+SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($K$13:$K$62,ROW($K$13:$K$62)-MIN(ROW($K$13:$K$62)),0,1)),--($K$13:$K$62="0")))&" / "&SUBTOTAL(2,$G$13:$G$62)
Thanks Chandoo.. This is one of the best budget spreadsheets I've ever seen.. The Arrays are out of this world!! And it's FREE!!
Chandoo, can you tell us more about Steven? Does he have his own site?
JP, I think Chandoo changed it when he changed the currency formatting from £ to $, a negative figure is a good thing in this case. But don't change the formulas, the overbudget and under budget won't work properly if you do. Also Chandoo I think you've accidentally broke the conditional formatting for the alternating row colouring the formula is different to the version I sent you. As for the megaformula chrisham, it gave me a headache trying to get it all working, so I will let Chandoo talk you through it.
Hi,
In cells I6 and I7, I understand that subtotal together with offset function returns an array of ones after which, the sumproduct function gives the desired result.
But I’m not able to figure out the reason for using an array in I8 to return the most expensive gift.
Can’t the formula be just
“=VLOOKUP(SUBTOTAL(4,$G$13:$G$62),$G$13:$J$62,4,0)”
Savithri, Cell I8 needs the array, if the formula was “=VLOOKUP(SUBTOTAL(4,$G$13:$G$62),$G$13:$J$62,4,0)” it would find the highest price from the filtered range (i.e. highest actual in filtered range is $50) BUT then return the first person with that actual, not looking in just the filtered range (so first person on the list with a $50 actual.)
To see what I mean, change the formula, then change all the actuals to $50 then filter for baby, it lists the first name on the list.
But a good question 🙂
Thank you. I now realise that the array is used to get the ‘filtered range’ instead of the entire range, as table array for look up value.
[...] Download This Template [...]
this looks like an awesome excel sheet!! is there anyway i can get it emailed to me unprotected? for some reason, i am unable to download it 🙁 help!!
Hi I also can not download to a mac as the sheet is protected any help would be great
[...] to send her a pricey present. Rather, send a card with a picture of your child. Here’s a cool Excel sheet that will help you estimate your budget per person and let you track [...]
[...] husband and I pour/poor over the Christmas spreadsheet (yes, I do know how dorky that sounds, but we’re not the only ones!), figuring out who should give what to whom. We live at a distance from most of our family, so it [...]