Excel Tips


Draw Perfect Circles »

November 20, 2023

The oval tool in the Drawing toolbar is hard to use. If I start drawing the rectangle in the upper-left corner of the cell, the shape will start in that corner. But if I start drawing a circle in the same spot, the oval I draw will not completely include the text in the cells. Also, why aren’t there circle and square shapes? I have a hard time drawing perfectly round circles and perfectly square squares.


Circle a Cell on Your Worksheet »

November 17, 2023

Excel offers an excellent calculation tool. However, I know that some people are visually oriented, and their eyes glaze over when they look at a large white sheet with black numbers. I want to use graphics to call attention to certain numbers.


Add Connectors to Join Shapes »

November 16, 2023

Is there a way to join two shapes with a connector?


Draw an Arrow to Visually Illustrate That Two Cells Are Connected »

November 15, 2023

I have a large spreadsheet with many calculations. Results from section 1 are carried forward to cells in section 2. It would help to graphically illustrate that one cell flows to the calculation of another.


Inserting a Screen Clipping »

November 14, 2023

Excel 2010 introduced the Screenshot icon on the Insert tab. If you open this dropdown, you will see a list of available windows that you can paste as a picture into the worksheet.


Remove Picture Background »

November 13, 2023

You can easily remove the background from a picture. I can imagine this will lead to a variety of Excel cover sheets with decorative pictures with the backgrounds removed.


Add Formatting to Pictures in Excel »

November 10, 2023

I used Insert, Picture to add a photograph at the top of my report. Excel displayed a new ribbon tab with dozens of options. What is all this stuff?


Paste a Live Picture of a Cell »

November 9, 2023

I have a massively large spreadsheet. I’m working on calculations in the top of the spreadsheet but need to monitor a result in W842. It is a pain to travel back and forth to monitor that cell.


Build Reports Where Columns in Each Section 1 Don’t Line Up »

November 8, 2023

I need to duplicate a fairly complex form. The form has several sections. The column widths needed for the first section do not line up with the column widths needed for the other two sections.