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13 Tips to Speed Up MS Excel Data Entry

23 July 2010, 9:07 am

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The following list of data-entry tips can help those moving up to Excel from another spreadsheet:

  • To enter data without pressing the arrow keys, enable the After Pressing Enter, Move Selection option on the Advanced tab of the Excel Options dialog box: Office -> Excel Options command. You can also choose the direction that you want to go.
  • You may find it helpful to select a range of cells before entering data. If you do so, you can use the Tab key or Enter key to move only within the selected cells.
  • To enter the same data in all cells within a range, select the range, enter the information into the active cell, and then press Ctrl+Enter.
  • To copy the contents of the active cell to all other cells in a selected range, press F2 and then press Ctrl+Enter.
  • To fill a range with increments of a single value, press Ctrl while you drag the fill handle at the lower-right corner of the cell.
  • To create a custom AutoFill list, select the Edit Custom Lists button on the Popular tab of the Excel Options dialog box.
  • To copy a cell without incrementing, drag the fill handle at the lower-right corner of the selection; or, press Ctrl+D to copy down or Ctrl+R to copy to the right.
  • To make text easier to read, you can enter line breaks in a cell. To enter a line break, press Alt+Enter. Line breaks cause a cell’s contents to wrap within the cell.
  • To enter a fraction, type 0, a space, and then the fraction (using a slash). Excel formats the cell using the Fraction number format.
  • To automatically format a cell with the currency format, type your currency symbol before the value.
  • To enter a value in percent format, type a percent sign after the value. You can also include your local thousand separator symbol to separate thousands such as 123,434.
  • To insert the current date, press Ctrl+; (semicolon). To enter the current time into a cell, press Ctrl+Shift+;.
  • To set up a cell or range so that it accepts entries only of a certain type or within a certain value range, choose the Data -> Data Tools -> Data Validation command.
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