Time Saving Microsoft Excel Tips
Tools Option Increases Productivity in Spreadsheet Software
The following tips will demonstrate little known time savers that will increase productivity as you use Excel.
Most people open Excel and use the default setting for their daily tasks. These default settings can be personalized so Excel can function to meet your needs. To use the personalizations below, select Tools, Options, and General from your main menu in Excel.
Number of Default Worksheets
By default, when you open Excel, your workbook contains 3 worksheets. Have you ever used all 3 worksheets? If not, you can change the value from 1 to 255. Be realistic...are you really going to use 255? Select a number that represents the number of worksheets you typically use.
Recently Used File List
This is the list of files you see under the File option on your main menu. The default number is 4 but you can change the value from 1 to 9. This is very helpful when searching for the last few files you have saved.
User Name
Something so simple but hardly ever used. Add your name to this field so all of your future documents have your name embedded as the author. You can see the effects of this by opening your workbook, selecting File and then selecting Properties. Changing the user name here will also update the rest of your Office products.
Standard Font
Do you constantly change the font to a different type or size whenever you save your workbook? Changing the standard font to your preferred size and type allows you use Excel seamlessly without having to adjust the font every time you open Excel.
Default File Location
Are you constantly searching for your favorite file location when you decide to save your document? Change this setting so the file is saved to your preferred location by default when you click on save. This is an excellent time saver and you never have to search for that precious document again! The only catch here is that you need to know the path to your location because there is not browse option.
To use the personalizations below, select Tools, Options, and View.
Windows in Taskbar
This feature will allow you the different excel workbooks you are working on as separate boxes in your Taskbar. This is very helpful when navigating to various workbooks using Alt Tab on your keyboard.
Status Bar
When selected, this option displays information about the actions in Excel such as the number of cells selected, the total count of cells selected, etc. This is a very quick reference for counts and totals when you are not ready to use a formula.
The features above will help you customize Excel to meet your needs. You only need to change them once and they are set unless you need to tweak them later.
