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My 3 favorite timesaving tips for Excel

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I have a love/hate relationship with Microsoft Office Excel. It's a great tool for so many things—analyzing data, organizing a lot of information, and keeping track of details are just a few things that come to mind. But it's not always easy for a devoted Microsoft Office Word user to become skilled at a spreadsheet program. I'm getting there, and slowly learning the true power of using Excel and how much it can really help me. In my effort to become more proficient in Excel, I've spent a lot of time on the Excel 2003 Assistance site. In addition, here are some of my favorite Excel tips that have helped save me time.

1. Hide rows and columns

Too often the spreadsheets I use look like just a mass of data. To make the information easier to digest, I like to clear the information I don't need to see. Oftentimes, the data I'm interested in might just be in two or three columns. In those instances, I find it much easier to hide and unhide rows. It's also a huge timesaver if you're inputting data into just select columns.

To hide a column:

  1. Highlight the columns you want to hide. In the image below, I want to hide Columns B through F.

    Image of Excel spreadsheet with columns highlighted

  2. On the Format menu, point to Column and click Hide.

    Image of Excel spreadsheet with procedures circled

  3. Your columns should now be gone.

    Image of Excel spreadsheet with columns hid

To unhide the columns:

  1. Select the columns adjacent to either side of the columns you want to display. In our example, highlight columns A and G.

    Image of Excel spreadsheet with columns highlighted

  2. On the Format menu, point to Column and click Unhide.

To hide and unhide rows, take the same steps as above but highlight rows instead. And on the Format menu click Rows.

2. Filter data

Another great way to reduce the amount of data you see and work with is to filter your columns. A filtered range displays only the rows that meet the criteria you specify. For example, I can filter my columns so that I only see data relevant to a certain person or place. It's a great way to condense a large spreadsheet and get only the targeted information you need. It's also extremely easy.

To filter your columns:

  1. Create or start with a spreadsheet with clearly marked column headings. The example below has columns for Place, Date, Time, and Person.

  2. Highlight the data you want to filter and on the Data menu, point to Filter and click Autofilter.

    Image of Excel spreadsheet with highlighted columns and procedures circled

  3. AutoFilter arrows will appear to the right of the column labels in the filtered range.

    Image of Excel spreadsheet with filtered columns

  4. Click the arrows to select the criteria on which you want to filter the data. For example, if I want to filter on all the information on Seattle, I click the Place arrow and choose Seattle.

    Image of Excel spreadsheet with filtered column being selected

3. Lock columns and rows

If you want to freeze a row of titles or categories so that you can keep them in sight as you enter data further down your spreadsheet, Excel 2003 has a handy Freeze Panes function. For example, if I'm looking at a budget spreadsheet, I keep the results budget projections locked in one pane so I can see the bottom line impact of expense and revenue forecasts I make in another pane.

To lock a pane, use your mouse to select the row below or the column to the right of where you want to freeze. On the Window menu, click Freeze Panes.

—Jason Kozleski