Week 1: Toolbox

Keyboard Shortcuts

If a shortcut requires pressing two or more keys at the same time, keys are separated by a + sign.
An exhaustive list of shortcuts is available on the Microsoft Office Support pages. Below are a small
number of shortcuts that we have selected to improve your speed and efficiency. The list is by no
means exhaustive. If different, Mac shortcuts are listed in the second position. For a list of Mac-
specific keyboard shortcuts see the Microsoft Office (for Mac) Support page.

NAVIGATING

Go to the top of the worksheet – CTRL + Home | CMD + Home

Go to the end of a contiguous range – CTRL + arrows | CMD + arrows

Display the Go To dialog box – F5

Go to previous/next worksheet – CTRL + Page Up/Down | CMD + Page Up/Down

Go to next workbook – CTRL + Tab | CMD + ~

Commit cell changes and go to the next cell below – ENTER

Commit cell changes and go to the next cell to the right – Tab

SELECTING

Select entire row – Shift + Space

Select entire column – CTRL + Space

Select the entire worksheet (or contiguous dataset) – CTRL + A | CMD + A

Select a contiguous range – CTRL + Shift + arrows

FORMULAS and FUNCTIONS

Expand or collapse formula bar – CTRL + Shift + U

Switch to formula view – F9

Insert a function/Open Formula Builder – Shift + F3

Select function and open brackets (after typing =) – Tab

FORMATTING

Open Format dialogue – CTRL + 1 | CMD + 1

Cell format – Shift + CTRL + ! (Number) or + $ (Currency) or + % (Percentage)

Toggle between type of cell reference – F4

EDITING

Delete row(s)/column(s) – CTRL + -

Add row(s)/column(s) – CTRL + Shift + +

DOCUMENTING

Insert/edit comment – Shift + F2

Name a cell or cell range – CTRL + F3 | CMD + F3

Display the Paste Name dialog box – F3

Terminology

Tables

The Table feature in Excel converts a standard range of cells into a cohesive data set. Tables have
a number of benefits that achieve a great deal of automation and flexibility. Refer to Intermediate I,
Week 5 for more details.

Named Ranges

Also referred to as Defined Names. Named Ranges are a way to give a memorable name to a single
cell or range of cells. You can then use a Named Range in formulas where it functions like an
absolute cell reference. It can also make your formulas more readable because the name has more
meaning than a cell reference. For example,=N4*Pension_Rate is more meaningful than =N4*$P$2.
Refer to Intermediate I, Week 3 for more details.

Wire-framing

The terminology is often used in website and software design but it is just as relevant for
spreadsheet design. A wireframe is a basic diagram of the content, arrangement and hierarchy of
elements of your spreadsheet. You can draw it on a piece of paper to start with. Especially with
larger projects, this diagramming exercise will be very important to help visualise your ideas,
optimise the contents and links between the various elements of your spreadsheet.

Styles

Styles in Excel work similarly to styles in Word. Styles can be used to easily control the formatting
across a whole workbook. Once assigned, a cell style controls all formatting aspects of a cell,
including font type, size, and colour, number format, borders, fill, etc.

Themes

A theme controls a set of formatting for the entire document, including colors, fonts, and effects.
Themes can be customised and shared with collaborators and across other MS Office programs.

Ninja Tips

Whilst there are many different ways of documenting and styling a spreadsheet, consider these tips
when you design and build your workbooks:

Accuracy

 Ask yourself at every stage: Does this result actually make sense? Never trust a
spreadsheet!
 Choose the best function for the job.
 When using IF functions, avoid more than three nested IFs! Use ALT+Enter to create a
new line inside your formula to improve the readability of your formula.

Flexibility

 Avoid hard-coding values into formulas at all cost.

 Use named ranges and tables where possible.
Responsiveness

 Use tables where possible. Named ranges in tables are super powerful as they will grow
along with your data - they are a great way to 'set and forget'
 Avoid using volatile functions. They can seriously affect the performance of your
workbook.
 Avoid dual data entry. Not only can this lead to errors and inconsistencies, it also means
that your workflow becomes bogged down in having to trace where you need to update
the same information more than once.

Easy-to-maintain

 Use styles and themes for your formatting where possible.

 Spend some time on coming up with standard naming conventions that you apply
across all of your work. Group named ranges, tables by using prefixes (e.g., tbl_; lkp_;
nav;). If you want your named ranges to appear before table and other elements,
consider using a prefix like AA.
 Avoid using macros if at all possible. They are great but hard to maintain and there is
often a simpler way to do a lot of things in Excel

User-friendly

 Remember that others may have to work with and understand your spreadsheet.
Include your future self in that group! You need to be able to understand what you did in
six months time!
 Work with a colleague to peer-review your work.
 Use comments and data validation where appropriate.
Week 2: Toolbox
Keyboard Shortcuts

Array Formulas

Compute an array formula - CTRL + Shift + Enter

Convert an existing formula into an array formula - F2, and then CTRL + Shift + Enter

Terminology

Array

This is a grid of any number of cells. In the formula bar, a colon separating two cell references
indicates a reference to an array. E.g. A5:A7 is a reference to the array containing the cells A5, A6
and A7.

Array Formula

Also known as a CSE (Control-Shift-Enter) Formula, this is an advanced Excel formula which relies
on the use of arrays. Curly braces { } in the formula bar indicate the use of an array formula.

Multi-Cell Array Formula

A type of array formula which gives results in multiple cells from a single formula.

Single-Cell Array Formula

A more common type of array formula which produces a result in a single cell from a single formula.

Array Constant

This is an array of values as opposed to an array of cell references. It is specified by putting values
in curly braces which are separated by semicolons. E.g. {1;2;3} is an array constant.
Transpose

The action of converting a row of Excel values to a column of the same values, or vice versa.

Structured Referencing

This is a type of referencing that Excel uses for tables. After creating a table, Excel automatically
designates names to the table and each column header in the table. Then, formulas that refer to
cells within the table can refer to those names instead of actual cell references.

Ninja Tips

Using TRUE and FALSE for counting

If you multiply the logical values TRUE or FALSE by 1 (one), then Excel will return the numerical
values 1 (one) or 0 (zero), respectively. This will allow you to use Excel formulas that are based on
the original logical values, which would otherwise not be possible.

Consider this example: Given two named ranges for current and old USD price, the array formula
{=SUM((USD_Price<Old_USD_Price)*1)} will first convert the logical values produced by
USD_Price<Old_USD_Price to '0's and '1's and then sum the results. Effectively, you will have
counted how many price decreases have occurred amongst all the pairs of current and old USD
prices.

Structured References

When using structured referencing, a mixture of relative referencing and absolute referencing is
employed by Excel. Generally, referencing tends to be absolute for formulas copied vertically but
relative for formulas copied horizontally. To convert from relative to absolute structured referencing,
the name for the column header needs to be duplicated before the formula is copied horizontally. For
example, use:

TopQtr[@[Best Quarters]:[Best Quarters]] instead of just TopQtr[@[Best Quarters]]

Where TopQtr is the name of the table being extracted from and Best Quarters is the header name
of the desired column in the table.