Month: October 2012

View All Formulas in Excel with a Single Click

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When someone sends you an Excel file, you may want to find out where the formulas are, and where are the values.

But with everything showing as a number, it is difficult… and you need to move from cell to cell, to find out if it is indeed a number, or a calculation based on a formula.

Fortunately, there is a simple way to find out where the formulas are, and see them all, at a glance.

Simply press the Control Key and hold it. Then press the ` symbol. On most keyboards, it is just above the Tab Key on the Left of the keyboard.

Tilde Key to View Formulas in Excel

This is a toggle shortcut. Each time you press the keystroke., it will turn itself on or off. So press CTRL + ` and you will see all the formulas, press the same keystroke one more time, and you are back to the values.

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Give it a try… it is really fun, and cool too!

You may find these resources useful:

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash – Providing you simple tips and tricks in Excel

Are you facing any problem in using Excel? Any Question?

You have come to the right place. Tell us your needs. We’ll be glad to help you!

Additional Resources for Learning Excel & Become A Pro

  1. Top 12 Most Important Excel Functions You Absolutely Must Know
  2. Excel Beginners Guide
  3. Excel Essentials: From Beginner To Pro in Just 6 Weeks

Counting Text Columns like Employee Names in Excel

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Excel is great and summing things up. And then count the number of rows easily. You can watch the step by step video on how to use simple functions in Excel.

In fact, most versions of Excel can even show the SUM, COUNT of a block of cells, in the bottom status bar automatically.

However, there is an issue, if you want to count number of employees, or number of departments, or number of students…

Text values, by default can not be summed by the SUM function, and can not be COUNTED by the Count function in Excel

That’s because Excel is good at adding and counting numbers, and not Text. If you try, you’ll get a ZERO.

=COUNT(Employee_Names) will result in a ZERO answer.

Fortunately, the workaround is pretty simple, straight forward and easy to use in Microsoft Excel. And it counts text values with ease.

Want to Improve Your Excel Skills?

Learn the Key Features of Excel Quickly & Easily, by Joining the
Online Training on Basic / Intermediate Excel.

To Get Most out of Excel, Learn the  Pivot Table techniques in our
Pivot Table Masterclass Training!


Instead of using the COUNT function, you can use the COUNTA function of Excel. COUNTA is to count Textual data.

So if you have characters, alphabets and number combinations (like employee numbers),  you can count such text items using the COUNTA function of Excel.

This COUNTA Function works in all the versions of Excel – from Excel 2007, Excel 2010, Excel 2013, Excel 2016, Excel 2019, and even Microsoft Office Excel 365 (the cloud version.)

So to count the number of employees, you only need to say =COUNTA(A5:A15).

And this nifty function will count the number of employees promptly. COUNTA is to count Alphanumeric values – text, strings… or even numbers.

Try it out, and let me know if this helps you… 🙂

You may find these resources useful:

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash
Founder of ExcelChamp.Net

 P.S. – Are you an Expert in using Excel ? Try solving this – find a way to find duplicates in Excel 2010 quickly. And post your solution. We are looking for simple and innovative ways to do so…

Are you facing any problem in using Excel? Any Question?

You have come to the right place. Tell us your needs. We’ll be glad to help you!