10 Important Features You Might Not Be Using In Microsoft Excel

Many people working in the corporate world need at least a passing familiarity with Microsoft Excel. Maybe you only indicated that you're skilled with Excel on your resume because it feels like one of those things you need to put. However, the day may come when you actually need to create a spreadsheet, and that's when you'll really need to learn the ins and outs of the software. 

Microsoft Excel is actually easy enough to get started. However, inputting data manually, one cell at a time, can become tedious, and you don't want your boss to realize you don't know the first thing of using Excel. There are some helpful Microsoft Excel shortcuts, such as knowing what keys allow you to copy and paste and highlighting certain cells to make the data pop more. Those alone should be enough to get the ball rolling, but you can take your Excel knowledge to the next level by knowing about some often underutilized features. 

With these features, you may realize using Excel has myriad other applications outside of your workplace. You may even find it so enjoyable that you use it to budget your finances or create fun graphs to amuse yourself. Some of these features are fairly new, so get on the ground floor and go from a novice to an expert in using Microsoft Excel.

Microsoft Excel has several unexpected uses, such as solving Sudokus for you. However, virtually everyone should know that the software allows you to create charts from the inputted data. You can devote an entire page to the line, bar, or pie graph to present a giant visual demonstration to your boss and clients. However, perhaps you don't want to go so huge all of the time. You can create smaller graphs, known as Sparklines, within the data set itself, providing you with a visual representation of the data right there next to the numbers. 

To do this, you need to select an empty cell at the end of a row and choose "Insert." You can then choose what type of Sparkline to put into the cell, such as a line or bar. Highlight the cells horizontally to where you want the chart to be built, and it'll automatically put a small visual of the data into that cell. From there, you can drag the Sparkline feature down into other empty cells if you have other rows you want to create Sparklines. 

Customizing the Sparkline is a breeze. After selecting the Sparkline cell, you should find a tab at the top of your spreadsheet labeled "Sparkline Color." Once you click this, you'll have options for changing the color and width of the line or bar. By the end, you'll have a compact, dynamic visual that shows how the data has varied over time.

Much like how a physical bookmark allows you to return to the exact point you want in a novel, you can do the same with various pieces of software. You likely know how to save a webpage as a bookpark so that you can find it effortlessly from your browser without always having to type the URL in. Plus, one of the many helpful Microsoft Word features involves creating bookmarks so that you can find where you were last working. Excel doesn't have specific bookmark features, but there is a simple workaround so that you can locate important cells easily. 

You just need to select the cell or group you feel you'll want to return to regularly. Go to the upper left-hand corner to the name box telling you what cell is presently designated. Once you click on it, you'll be able to rename that cell so you can write in the specific designation. When you're finished typing, hit "Enter" or "Return" so that it saves.

Even if you have multiple sheets in a single document, you can go to the name box at any time and select the name you want to go back to. This will instantly take you to those cell(s) so you don't have to waste precious time scrolling to find it again. 

Like Sparklines, conditional formatting is a way to better represent your data visually so that you don't have to spend so much time scouring through each number. After you select all of the data you want to organize, go to the top of your Excel page and find a tab labeled "Conditional Formatting." The top two options are labeled "Highlight Cells Rules" and "Top/Bottom Rules." This allows you to determine the desired parameters for locating specific data sets. 

For example, you may want to determine which values exist within the top 10%. You'd need to go to "Top/Bottom Rules" for that and select "Top 10%." From there, you can alter the coloring and hit "OK" to see which numbers are in the 10th-highest percentile. 

You can do a ton else with this feature, such as locating any numbers higher than a specific quantity or finding anything above the average. Elsewhere in the "Conditional Formatting" tab, you can create data bars and color scales. If you use data bars, each cell will be given a bar representing how high it falls within the given scale. The bars mostly serve as a stylistic flourish, but automatically locating data points in a given range can save you a lot of hassle in the long run. 

For better and worse, AI keeps gradually getting incorporated into various pieces of software. This includes Microsoft's suite of products, and while it's natural for there to be some hesitation before diving headfirst into this arena, there are ways to make it work to your advantage to an extent. For example, you can learn how to write Excel formulas using ChatGPT, but you can also analyze data directly in Excel itself without needing a supplementary program. 

To do this, select the data you want to know more about. Press "Analyze Data," and it'll provide you with an automatic list of queries to locate trends or find out more about the numbers. You can also input your own question that Excel will then extrapolate to answer to the best of its ability. You can use it to determine the total quantity of sales or determine the average within a set of numbers. 

The Analyze Data feature should also automatically give you a chart or table of your data that you can input directly into the page by hitting "Insert PivotChart." No matter what, it's best to ask clear questions and select a straightforward data set so that the AI doesn't mess anything up. 

Microsoft Excel is highly valuable in organizing past data. However, you can also use it to forecast sales or other trends in the future by using Excel to forecast what should theoretically happen. For this, you'll need to develop a chart correlating sales, expenses, or anything else to specific dates. Once you select those numbers, go to the "Data" tab under settings and hit "Forecast Sheet." You can choose either a column or line chart, and it'll create a table showing how the numbers have already ranged while predicting what should happen based on that data going forward. 

To have the most accurate forecasting possible, you want to use consistent intervals, such as having values correspond with the first of every month. You can further customize the forecasting trajectory by including extra features, like confidence intervals. This will create two additional lines in the graph where you don't have hard data yet. It'll provide a buffer of whatever percentage you want, like a 10% margin of error, to show how widely those future numbers can vary. 

Of course, Microsoft Excel can't predict the future. There are countless variables that could impact future sales or whatever the figures may correspond to. You can try to adjust for this by manually inputting certain factors, such as seasonality. If you know your sales tend to be lower in the summer compared to other seasons, you can override the forecasting by decreasing those future values accordingly. 

You know the old saying: Pobody's nerfect. Numerous things can go wrong when inputting data whether someone enters it manually or they're copying and pasting from another source which could've gotten something wrong. Regardless, you might wind up with duplicate entries in a given spreadsheet, which can throw off the average, total, or whatever else you're trying to gather. Rather than scour each cell individually to see if anything pops up more than it should, you can learn how to find and remove duplicates in Microsoft Excel with ease. 

Under the "Data" tab, there should be an option to simply "Remove Duplicates." You should already have your value range selected, but a table will come up where you can customize that if desired. Once you select "OK," it'll remove any duplicate values found. Naturally, the first instance of that number will remain intact while everything else goes away. It's always a good idea to check your work manually no matter what, but these tools can help filter out a lot to take some of the stress off your plate. 

Microsoft Excel is fine when you need to share just the data. However, suppose your job relies on the entire Microsoft Office Suite. In that case, your position may require you to share data in more accessible manners, such as including a data set in a Microsoft Word document. Creating graphs in Word or PowerPoint is a hassle, and the best thing you can do in this instance is to simply take a picture of the data you need to convey using Excel's hidden camera feature. 

You'll likely need to select the "Ellipses" notation at the top of your spreadsheet. Go to "Commands Not in the Ribbon" and scroll down until you find "Camera." From there, you can add it to your permanent toolbar to easily find it whenever you need to take pictures in the future. For now, you can highlight whatever data set you want and then click the "Camera" icon. This will create a straightforward image of the numbers that you can then put into a document or slideshow showcasing your findings. 

You can even edit certain features of the image right there in Excel. From changing the color to altering the transparency, you can get it to look precisely how you want, so your presentation leaves an impact. 

When it comes to visualizing data, Microsoft Excel has plenty of options. However, perhaps you're someone who has trouble committing to an idea until you see it right there on the sheet. Rather than going back and forth between different graphs, you can utilize Excel's Quick Analysis feature. 

After selecting a range of numbers, you should automatically see a button pop up in the bottom right-hand corner of what you selected. If it's not there, you may need to press "Ctrl+Q." Once you click on the tab, it'll provide you with various options, from formatting to Sparklines. You just hover your mouse icon over the one you want to preview, and it'll show what that graph or Sparkline will look like on your spreadsheet. You may realize having bars within each cell becomes a bit too unwieldy, so you opt for something different. The important thing is that you can look at each choice before including it. 

Ultimately, it allows you to import data from the Cloud into your working spreadsheet. This allows you to access other Excel workbooks or other file types, such as CSV, to get all the data you need. Once it's in your Excel file, you can change it to suit your needs, and the most beneficial aspect of Power Query is that the original file that's still in the Cloud remains unchanged. 

Power Query is also useful for combining multiple files into a single source. For instance, let's say your a business owner of several different locations. Maybe you want to compare the sales of the past month from all of your stores. You could access that via the Cloud and merge them into a single file, where you would then be able to more easily compare the data, create graphs, or do anything else you want to do.

There are many other features to utilize, so play around with it to see what all you can do.

There's no need to write out or copy and paste every little thing in Excel. There are various tools designed to make organization far simpler. For example, you should learn how to alphabetize data in Microsoft Excel by picking the "Sort" feature after selecting the items you want to rearrange either alphabetically or in reverse order. Excel also offers automatic list options, so if you want to organize data by the day of the week, you would only need to type in "Monday." From there, you can drag the cell vertically to get it automatically inserted every other day.

However, you may frequently use another type of list that Excel doesn't come with. You can create your own custom list formats by going to "File" and then "Options." Under the "Advanced" tab, you should find a button labeled "Edit Custom Lists." From there, you can create a brand new list format by typing in the values you want there to be every time. You can input as many as you like, hitting "Enter" after each to designate a new cell. Once the custom list is created, you can then do the same thing as the days of the week example. After you type the first entry, drag it down to automatically get all the other values into the column.

With all of these hidden Excel features, you can spend a lot less time working on spreadsheets and more doing other tasks. Knowing how to do all of this means you can list "Microsoft Excel" as a skill on your resume and genuinely mean it.