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All articles in 'Excel Howtos' Category

How to get non-adjacent columns with FILTER function in Excel

Published on Mar 12, 2024 in Excel Howtos
How to get non-adjacent columns with FILTER function in Excel

Excel 365’s FILTER() function is great for getting a cut of data that meets your criteria. But what if you need to filter and then show non-adjacent columns? Something like below. In this article, let me show you a few options to get discrete columns after filtering with the FILTER function.

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What is XLOOKUP and how to use it in Excel?

Published on Mar 12, 2024 in Excel Howtos
What is XLOOKUP and how to use it in Excel?

Think of XLOOKUP as an improved version of VLOOKUP. In this article, learn all about the XLOOKUP function, it’s syntax, parameters with real-world xlookup examples.

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Extract BOLD portion of a cell in Excel using getBoldText() function

Published on Feb 26, 2024 in Excel Howtos, VBA Macros
Extract BOLD portion of a cell in Excel using getBoldText() function

Use the getBoldText() function in Excel to extract bolded portion of a cell automatically. Saves you time and helps with data cleaning.

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How to fix SPILL Error in Excel Tables (3 easy solutions)

Published on Feb 21, 2024 in Excel Howtos, Learn Excel
How to fix SPILL Error in Excel Tables (3 easy solutions)

So you have a SPILL error in your Excel tables? In this quick article, let me show you 3 easy fixes to the problem. Fix 0: See if Excel can auto-fix the formula This is not really a fix. But if you write certain types of formulas in table, Excel will warn you about the […]

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How-to create Dependent Drop Downs in Excel [Dynamic & Multiple]

Published on Feb 14, 2024 in Excel Howtos, Learn Excel
How-to create Dependent Drop Downs in Excel [Dynamic & Multiple]

Do you want to create a dynamic dependent drop down list in Excel like below? You can use XLOOKUP and data validation to set this up quickly. It is fully dynamic and works across a full column too.

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How to calculate time between two dates in Years, Months & Days [Excel Formula]

Published on Jan 29, 2024 in Excel Howtos, Learn Excel
How to calculate time between two dates in Years, Months & Days [Excel Formula]

Let’s say you have two dates in the cells D4 & D5 as above. You want to find out the duration in years, months & days between both. We can use the good-old DATEDIF formula for this.

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Speed up your Excel Formulas [10 Practical Tips]

Published on Apr 14, 2023 in Excel Howtos, Learn Excel
Speed up your Excel Formulas [10 Practical Tips]

Excel formulas acting slow? Today lets talk about optimizing & speeding up Excel formulas. Use these tips & ideas to super-charge your sluggish workbook. Use the best practices & formula guidelines described in this post to optimize your complex worksheet models & make them faster.

1. Use tables to hold the data
2. Use named ranges & named formulas
3. Use Dynamic Array formulas
4. Sort your data
5. Use manual calculation mode

… and more. Read on to learn these top 10 tips & ideas to improve performance of your excel formulas.

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Can you split “The Hangover” expenses? [Excel Homework]

Published on May 19, 2022 in Excel Challenges, Excel Howtos
Can you split “The Hangover” expenses? [Excel Homework]

Can you split the atom? No, ok, how about splitting the expenses then?
In this homework challenge, can you take a look at the expenses of wolf-pack and tell me who owes who & how much?

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How to write complex Excel formulas (hint: it’s a lot like LEGO)

Published on Dec 9, 2021 in Excel Howtos, Learn Excel
How to write complex Excel formulas (hint: it’s a lot like LEGO)

Writing advanced formulas is a lot like LEGO. Use what you already have and combine them in creative ways. Let me demo with 5 examples.

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Sorting values in Olympic Medal Table style [Quick Tip]

Published on Aug 2, 2021 in Excel Howtos
Sorting values in Olympic Medal Table style [Quick Tip]

It is Olympic season. Everyone I know is tracking the games and checking their country’s performance. One thing that we notice when looking at medal tally is,

A single Gold medal is worth more than any number of Silver medals. Like wise, a single Silver medal is worth more than any number of Bronze medals.

So, when you look at the ranking of countries, you see countries with single Gold medal higher up than countries with lots of Silver and Bronze medals (but no Gold).

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How to use Date & Time values in Excel – 10 + 3 tips

Published on Jul 28, 2021 in Excel Howtos, Learn Excel
How to use Date & Time values in Excel – 10 + 3 tips

Excel date time features are very handy and knowing how to use Excel date values can help you save a ton of time in your day to day spreadsheet chores. Let us prepare for your date with the sheet using these 10 handy tips.

Before jumping on to the tips, it helps to know how excel represents the date and time.

Microsoft Excel stores dates as sequential numbers … January 1, 1900 is serial number 1, and 28 July, 2021 is serial number 44405 because it is 44,405 days after January 1, 1900. Excel stores times as decimal fractions because time is considered a portion of a day.

Read on to learn more.

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Two-level Data Validation [Excel Trick]

Published on Sep 23, 2020 in Excel Howtos, Learn Excel
Two-level Data Validation [Excel Trick]

Ever wanted to create a two-level data validation list? You can use this simple trick to make two-level or cascading drop-down validation lists in Excel. You need some data, a pivot table and simple IF formulas to get this. Read on to understand the process and create your own two-level drop down lists in Excel.

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Highlight due dates in Excel – Show items due, overdue and completed in different colors

Published on May 18, 2020 in Excel Howtos, Learn Excel
Highlight due dates in Excel – Show items due, overdue and completed in different colors

Congratulations to you if your job does not involve dead lines. For the rest of us, deadlines are the sole motivation for working (barring free internet & the coffee machine in 2nd floor, of course). So today, lets talk about a very familiar problem.

How to highlight due dates in Excel?

The item can be an invoice, a to do activity, a project or anything. So how would you do it using Excel?

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How to show positive / negative colors in area charts? [Quick tip]

Published on May 12, 2020 in Charts and Graphs, Excel Howtos
How to show positive / negative colors in area charts? [Quick tip]

Ever wanted to make an area chart with up down colors, something like this? Then this tip is for you.

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Number to Words – Excel Formula

Published on Mar 24, 2020 in Excel Howtos, VBA Macros
Number to Words – Excel Formula

Ever wanted to convert numbers to words in Excel? For example, 456,123 becomes four hundred fifty-six thousand one hundred twenty-three.

Microsoft recently introduced LET function to Excel. This allows us to create variables on the fly to use within a formula. I just made a words from number formula using LET function and bit of good old INDEX.

Read on to learn how this all works.

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