Quick Hacks to Edit Excel Spreadsheet

Excel is a powerful tool for managing data, but it can be tricky to use. Luckily, some quick hacks can make your life easier. For example, you can easily convert Excel to PDF with some free tools. According to Adobe Acrobat experts, “Turn PDFs into Excel files.”

The following tricks will help you format and reformat your spreadsheets quickly and easily!

Convert number to text, monetary amount

You can convert numbers to text and monetary amounts in two ways. The TEXT function is the better choice if you want to change a value that’s already in an Excel cell into text, while VALUE is better used if you’re trying to change a value from one cell into another.

For example, this formula converts the number 12345678901234567890 into words:

=TEXT(C2,”0″)

Display negative numbers in brackets

  • Select a column of cells.
  • Click the Format Cells button in the Home tab, across from the Formula Bar.
  • In the Format Cells dialog box, click on the Number tab and select the Show as negative numbers in the brackets option.
  • Click OK to close this dialog box.

Add zeros after decimal point

  • To add zeros to the end of a decimal, select the number of cells you want to format.
  • Right-click on the selected cells and select Format Cells from the drop-down menu that appears.
  • Click on the Number tab at the top in your formatting section and check Zero after the Decimal Place box in order to add zeroes after decimal points.
  • Click OK when done with your changes!

Remove leading and trailing spaces

When you have a wide range of data, it can be hard to keep track of everything.

You need to ensure that all your cells are properly formatted and contain the appropriate information. To do this in Excel, follow these steps:

  • Select the cell or range of cells you want to clean up.
  • Type “trim” into the formula bar at the top of your spreadsheet and hit Enter on your keyboard (do not type any spaces). This will prompt Excel to remove any leading spaces from each cell in that range; if there were trailing zeroes at the end of those cells’ values, they will be removed as well—the cursor should automatically return itself after hitting Enter on this step! If needed, though.

Filter top 10 values in a list

Here’s how to use the filter function.

  • Click on the Data tab in Excel 2016, and then click on Filter. This will open a drop-down box where you can select an option from the list that appears there: Top 10 Values, Top 10% Values, Bottom 10 Values, Bottom 10% Values and so on.
  • For the filter function to work with your data properly, ensure that you have selected all cells with data before running this function (all empty cells should be unselected).

The hacks they’ve covered here are just a few of the many ways you can use Excel. Hopefully you were inspired by the quick tips and tricks and some new ways to make your life easier when working with spreadsheets! If there’s anything else you want to know, read more online.

Adam Hansen
 

Adam is a part time journalist, entrepreneur, investor and father.