Having the basic knowledge of excel formulas and functions is important for beginners in the journey of becoming good data analysts and or financial analysts in the future. Excel is used mostly for data processing, financial projections, financial analysis, data modeling, and presentations. Excel is an incredibly important Microsoft for the window for its features. Excel 2020 for beginners: the complete dummy to expert illustrative guide with examples that teaches everything you need to know about microsoft excel 2020 (formulas and functions inclusive).
July 09, 2020 - by Bill Jelen
You inherit a spreadsheet from a former co-worker and you need to figure out how the calculations work. You could visit each cell, one at a time, and look at the formula in the formula bar. Or you could quickly toggle between pressing F2 and Esc to see the formula right in the cell.
But there is a faster way. On most U.S. keyboards, just below the Esc key is a key with two accent characters: the tilde from Spanish and the grave accent from French. It is an odd key. I don’t know how I would ever use this key to actually type piñata or frère .
If you hold down Ctrl and this key, you toggle into something called Show Formulas mode. Each column gets wider, and you see all of the formulas.
This gives you a view of all the formulas at once. It is great for spotting “plug” numbers (B9) or when someone added the totals with a calculator and typed the number instead of using =SUM(). You can see that the co-worker left RANDBETWEEN functions in this model.
Note
Here is another use for the Tilde key. Say you need to use the Find dialog to search for a wildcard character (such as the * in 'Wal*Mart' or the ? in 'Hey!?' Precede the wildcard with a tilde. Search for Wal~*Mart or Hey!~?.
Tip
To type a lowercase n with a tilde above, hold down Alt while pressing 164 on the number keypad. Then release Alt.
Excel For Dummies 2021
Title Photo: Roberto Nickson at Unsplash.com
Excel For Dummies 2020
This article is an excerpt from MrExcel 2020 - Seeing Excel Clearly.