Happy Friday Excellers. Time for some more #FridayFriday fun. and another Excel tip. Today let’s look at 3 different ways to enter Excel formulas into your Excel workbooks. Do you use the same method over and over again?. You may find a quicker method in one of these below.
Let’s look at an example as in my screenshot below. We are going to calculate the number of Total Costs in Column F. This is a simple calculation which is a simple formula detailed below.
Total Cost = Items Sold x Item Cost.
Method 1 Formula Entry.
The first formula entry method is to simply enter in the formula, by putting the cell pointer in F4 and type =C4*D4 and then press Enter. This should take you 7 keystrokes to complete. Give them a count as you go.
This method of typing the cell references along with the formula is all well and good and fairly quick. It allows you to use the keyboard, but as you can imagine it is not great for when you have some more complex formulas as it can get quite complicated. There is a lot of moving around back and forth.
Method 2 Formula Entry
This method involves using the arrow keys. Once mastered it is really quick and quite intuitive. Let’s repeat the same formula starting with moving the cell pointer to cell F4. Then we start the formula by typing the = sign to let Excel know you are about to enter a formula.
Hit the left arrow 3 times to get to C4, and a dotted border will appear around the cell.
Next hit the * sign either on the numeric keyboard or the numeric pad. The dotted border will disappear from C4 and a solid border will replace it. If you hit any operator key such as * – + etc Excel knows that you are moving onto the next part of your formula.
Next hit the left arrow two times and the dotted line appears around cell D4.
Hit enter and you now have your formula. This only takes 5 keystrokes – wow!!! Keystrokes are reducing.
Did you know you can also start a formula with the + sign, if you do this you can type the WHOLE formula on your numeric pad on a keyboard +<<<*>enter. How fast is that?????
Method 3 Formula Entry
The third method is to use the mouse as well as the keyboard. I find most users use this method unless they have been trained or have been shown early in their Excel use the other two formula entry methods above. Using the mouse and keyboard is quite time-consuming.
Again using the same formula as our two methods above, click the mouse in cell F4 and type the = sign on the keyboard. Click on cell C4, go to the keyboard and type the * sign. Click back into cell D4 with your mouse then hit the equals sign.
As you can tell this is a really long-winded way of accomplishing a very simple task, in particular when moving from the mouse to the keyboard which can be fiddly and distracting.
If you use Method 3, the ‘Mouse Method’ why not give one of the other quicker methods a go for half a day and see if it speed up your formula writing.
Let me know in the comments below if it does or does not speed you up!. Also which method do you use to enter Excel formulas?
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Other Excel Formula Tip Articles Of Interest
Formula Friday – Calculate Only Some Of Your Workbook’s Formulas
Formula Friday – Setting Excel To Calculate Formulas Manually