Top 8 Productivity Boosting Excel Tricks

Forget the features that are way to advanced for the average user and take a step beyond those techniques that everyone can figure out. Instead, take a look at some of the cool things you can do in Excel to boost your productivity.

1. Automatically Create a Drop-Down List: Excel is famous for its data management capabilities, but someone has to enter all of that information. To make your data entry a little easier and ensure continuity in your entries, you can easily access an automatic drop-down list. This way, you can display a list of entries already typed in the current column. To see this drop-down list, simply click in the first available cell in a column, this press
2. Copy the Data in the Cell Above: Need to quickly enter the same data that appears in the cell directly above your cursor? Press [CTRL] + ' (apostrophe).

3. Quickly Enter a Range of Data: Have you ever needed to enter the SAME content across a range of cells? You don't have to type it over and over again. You don't even have to use copy and paste. With Excel, you can select the range to enter the same data, type the date, then press [CTRL]+[ENTER]. Voila!

4. Enter the Current Date in a Cell: Ever need to put the current date in a cell? Sure, you could use the NOW function, but then the date would always update to reflect the current date. To simply enter the current date in a cell that doesn't automatically update, press [CTRL] + ; (semicolon).

5. Transposing Data: Have you ever looked a spreadsheet and wished your rows were columns and your columns were rows? Well, wish no more - you can use the Transpose option located in the Paste Special Dialog Box to quickly reverse the layout of your data. To achieve this effect, select and copy the data to transpose, click the upper leftmost cell of the new data location, then choose Paste Special (in Excel 2003, the Paste Special option is found on the Edit menu; in Excel 2007, the Paste Special option is found under the Paste command on the Home tab). Next, choose the Transpose option and click OK.

6. Quickly Create a Chart: Want to quickly create a Chart without having to go through the hassle of using the Chart Wizard? Highlight your chart data, press F11 and call it a day!

7. AutoFill: You probably already know that you can drag the AutoFill handle (located on the lower-right corner of any active cell) to increment weekdays, quarters or months in a series. But, typically when you use the AutoFill handle on a single number, Excel simply copies the data. However, to increment a single number, you can hold down [CTRL] while dragging the AutoFill handle. This eliminates the need to create a number pattern before dragging.

8. AutoSum: I'll make this sort and sweet (just like the AutoSum feature). You can use the keyboard shortcut (equal sign) to enter the AutoSum formula in a cell.

These are just a few of the features Excel is capable of, but hopefully they've given you some ideas on how you can start making the Excel program work for you!