Excel Tips

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Switch between displaying formulas and their values on a worksheet

Press CTRL + ` (grave accent).

Backtracking during an Excel Find or Replace (97/98/2000)

When you're using the Find or Replace feature in Excel, it's easy to get ahead of yourself and click the Find Next button one too many times. Fortunately, you can easily move backward through a worksheet. To do so, simply hold down the Shift key when you click the Find Next button.

Copying data validation rules to other cells

If you've set up data validation rules in Excel, you may find that you want to apply the same validation criteria to another range, or even another workbook. Fortunately, this is very easy to do without recreating all the rules.

• First, select a range containing the cells that already have validation rules.

• Press Ctrl + C to copy the range.

• Then, right-click the first cell in the range you want to apply the rules to.

• From the shortcut menu, select Paste Special.

• When the Paste Special dialog box appears, select the Validation option and then click OK.

Edit Excel Formulas with the Formula palette (97/2000)

You may have used Excel's Formula palette to create complex formulas, but you should also be aware that you can use it to edit existing formulas.

• First, select the cell containing the formula you want to edit.

• Then, click the Edit Formula button, which is the equal sign next to the Formula Bar, to open the Formula palette.

• The last function used in the formula appears in bold in the Formula Bar and its arguments appear in the Formula palette.

• If the formula contains several functions, you can change which function is reflected in the Formula palette by simply clicking on the function name in the Formula Bar.

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