Can You Excel in 2021?
Excel is beguiling, both spectacular and appalling, on the one hand creating inciteful dashboards while on the other allowing circuitous visual basic swamps that absorb indecent amounts of time.
It is a tool that is ubiquitous in the modern digital environment that few would claim to have fully mastered.
There are many simple shortcuts that can improve daily efficiency. Each week there will be a tip at the base of the post. The tips will be something that I have found useful and my hope is that in time you may also find them of value. This week is unusual as the subject of the post is Excel itself.
Excel continues to grow and develop and 2020 saw some remarkable new single line command functions. These new functions permit tasks which previously were more complex or required a several steps. A mastery of these new functions is recommended and while I could start a training program right here there are already a plethora of superb sources available.
One of the best learning sources (alongside LinkedIn’s own LinkedIn Learning: Online ) is YouTube and my firm recommendation would be to watch Leila Gharani, a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional), who covers almost everything you could need.
It was Leila’s latest video that prompted this post, 5 Excel Functions YOU NEED in 2021.
These new functions take advantage of the new simpler array capabilities in Excel making them very powerful.
The 5 Leila chose with time stamps are:
00:32 SORT (SORTBY)
03:16 UNIQUE
05:41 XLOOKUP
07:43 FILTER
09:29 SEQUENCE
The one you are most likely to have heard mentioned is XLOOKUP. The Big Daddy of VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP, but also a MATCH/INDEX competitor. It is a great function and while Leila does have other videos covering it in far greater detail, the 2 minutes in video this does give you a head start.
I do hope you find it useful.
Excel Tip 1 - Adding or Removing a Column or Row.
Press SHIFT & SPACEBAR to select the row you are on
or CTRL & SPACEBAR to select the column you are in.Press CTRL & PLUS - to add a row or column
or CTRL & MINUS to remove a row or column.