These little-known Excel clicks can save you time every day
Some of Excel's most useful features aren't hidden behind complicated menus or obscure keyboard shortcuts. They're built into controls you probably pass over without a second thought. Here are some that can save you time every day.
Make Excel's interface work harder
Useful controls hiding in places you might overlook
The Excel ribbon has more useful controls than the obvious buttons and menus suggest. Some can change how much of the worksheet you can see, while others give you faster access to settings and commands you use regularly.
Make more room for your worksheet
If you're working with a large spreadsheet, the ribbon can take up a surprising amount of useful screen space . Open a tab, then double-clickit to tuck the ribbon away. Click a tab once when you need a command, and Excel will temporarily bring the ribbon back. Double-click a tab again to restore it permanently.
Open hidden settings with the tiny arrows
The little arrows in the bottom-right corners of some ribbon groups are dialog launchers. Click one and Excel opens a more detailed settings window for that group.
The Font, Number, and Alignmentlaunchers all open the Format Cells dialog , which contains controls for many common formatting tasks, including some you won't find elsewhere, such as cell protection.
Make your favorite tools more accessible
There's no reason to keep visiting a particular tab just to use one command. For some commands, you can right-clickthem and select Add to Quick Access Toolbar. They then sit at the top of the Excel window , giving you one-click access wherever you happen to be working.
If you want to go further, you can also create your own toolbar buttons with VBA , giving you quick access to custom macros alongside Excel's built-in commands.
Give long formulas more space
A complicated formula can become a game of horizontal scrolling when the formula baris only one line tall. Hover over its lower edgeuntil the pointer changes, then drag downwardto give yourself more room.
Press Alt+Enterto move onto the next line when typing a long formula.
Get more out of your formulas
Excel's formula tools can do more than you expect
The formula bar and the little ToolTips that appear as you type contain several interactive features. They're useful not only for entering formulas, but also for getting help, understanding unfamiliar functions, and inserting references without typing everything yourself.
Get help when writing a formula
As you type a function , Excel displays its syntax in a ToolTipunderneath the cell. If you click the function namein that little pop-up, Excel shows you more information in the Helpsidebar. You can also click an argument nameto select that part of the formula, making it easier to check that you've used the right references in the right parts of the formula.
See plain-English explanations of each function and its arguments
Need help finding or understanding a function? Click the fxbutton beside the formula bar to open Insert Function. You can search for a function by describing what you want to do, select a function from a category, or see all the functions. Clicking a function displays an explanation underneath, and double-clicking one opens the Function Argumentsdialog, which is useful when you've stumbled upon a function that looks familiar, but you're not quite sure what its arguments are supposed to do.
Insert a table reference with a click
When you're entering a formula that uses an Excel table , you don't have to type the column reference yourself. With the formula active, position your pointer over the column headeryou want to reference. When the pointer becomes a black arrow, click the header to insert the structured reference .
Work faster with your data
Skip the repetitive stuff
Some of these tricks are useful because they remove tiny bits of repetitive work. You might only save a few seconds each time, but those seconds add up when you're working in Excel every day.
Autofit every column at once
Instead of resizing columns one at a time, click the trianglein the top-left corner of the worksheet to select everything. Then double-clickthe boundarybetween any two column headers. Excel adjusts all the columns to fit their contents in one go.
Control what the fill handle does
The fill handle at the bottom-right of a selected cell offers more than just copying a value down a column. Drag the fill handlewith your right mouse button, and Excel displays a menu when you release it. From there, you can choose how the cells should be filled, including Fill Without Formattingwhen you want the formula but need to preserve the existing formatting.
Clean up a table style with a single click
Applying a table style to a table that already has manual formatting can mean you don't get the full benefit of the preset layout. Rather than simply clicking the style you want, right-click itand choose Apply and Clear Formatting. Excel removes the existing manual formatting and applies the table style cleanly.
Navigate large workbooks faster
You don't have to scroll through Excel to find what you need
As workbooks grow, finding a particular sheet or the information behind a summary can become surprisingly time-consuming. Excel has a few overlooked navigation tricks that can get you where you need to go without hunting through tabs or menus.
Jump straight to any worksheet
When you have more worksheets than will fit comfortably along the bottom of the window, right-clickeither of the sheet-navigation arrows. Excel opens a list of the worksheets in the workbook, and you can double-clickthe one you want to jump to.
Navigate to anything in a Microsoft 365 workbook
Excel for Microsoft 365 gives you another way to find your way around a busy workbook. Click the sheet countbeside the navigation controls to open the Navigation pane . From there, you can see your worksheets and objects such as tables, shapes, PivotTables, and charts, then jump straight to whichever one you need. You can also use the Navigation pane's search barto find things more quickly.
Turn a PivotTable result into a detailed sheet
A PivotTable can tell you a total, but sometimes you also want to know which records make up that number. Double-clicka value in the PivotTableand Excel creates a new worksheet containing the underlying records behind that number. It's a surprisingly useful way to go from a summary to the data supporting it.
Don't overlook the small things
When you're looking to upgrade your Excel workflow, it's easy to focus on the "big" features, such as new functions, Power Query, and complex dialog boxes, while missing the little controls that can make everyday work smoother. These tricks take seconds to learn but can save you repeated clicks every time you use them. And if you're looking for more ways to speed things up, get to know some useful Excel keyboard shortcuts that many people overlook .
