Recently, I attended an industry summit that had an expert’s panel where people provided their best tips. One Excel tip involved filtering cells with a certain number of words. A nice tip, but it left some attendees wondering where is Excel’s word count function. The program doesn’t have this feature, but you can get the answer by creating an Excel formula to count words. (Includes sample Excel worksheet and formula)
Excel
Use VBA Function to Show Excel Filter Criteria
Have you ever received an Excel file and wondered how it was filtered without checking each column’s data filter? Or, maybe you needed to send a file and show your filters. That was a problem I faced recently when I started with a list of 3200 non-profits for the county. I needed a ...
Easy Excel Random Number Generator
Recently, I got a request from our city manager asking if I could randomly select 150 people from a list of names. I think the purpose was to do a survey, but maybe it was to select contest winners. I didn’t ask. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to generate random numbers in Excel. Includes an extra function if you’re a Microsoft 365 subscriber.
Excel Tables Offers Hidden Benefits
Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot by just watching”. In this case, I was watching someone work with Excel doing various things to make the spreadsheet more usable. I suggested to my co-worker that he could reduce steps by creating an Excel Table. And no, I’m not talking about pivot tables but something much simpler and equally powerful.
Beginners Guide to EXCEL XLOOKUP
One of the more exciting software features to be released in Excel is the XLOOKUP function. Just looking at the name, you might think I did a typo and meant vlookup. No, this is an entirely new spreadsheet function that makes looking up data easier with fewer limitations on your lookup column.
Boost Your Data Analysis with Excel Solver Tutorial
Awhile back, I wrote a tutorial about a useful feature in Microsoft Excel called Goal Seek. It allows you to solve simple “what-if” scenarios. However, it has limitations. Fortunately, Microsoft has a more powerful data analysis tool. You can even add a constraint to your equation. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use Solver in Excel. (Includes practice file.)
Find & Fix Common Formula Errors in Excel
Sometimes the best way to learn something is from our mistakes. There have been countless times where simple Excel formula errors have caused much frustration. This short guide shows some common examples and how to fix these errors using Excel’s Formula Auditing tools. And sometimes, the fix is as simple as adding punctuation.
Excel Flash Fill Learns By Example
Learn how to easily manipulate cell entries with Excel Flash Fill. The feature doesn’t rely on formulas or coding. You simply have to find a pattern and Excel’s machine learning does the rest.
How to Convert a Month Name to a Number in Excel
Sometimes the data we get isn’t in the correct format. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use the MONTH function in Excel to convert names to numbers.
How to Check Excel Cells for Specific Text
Not long ago, a friend challenged a comment I made. It had to do with word choices and if people use one verb more than others. In this article, I’ll show you how to tell if an Excel cell contains specific text. We’ll test this out using a series of questions people posed to Google.