Hello, Excellers. welcome to another blog post with an #exceltip in my 2019 #formulafriday series. Today I want to share with you how to carry out a calculation with no excel formula, and no addition of extra helper cells or columns. Let’s say that we need to add 5% to our sales targets for the new financial year.  We do not want to have to add helper columns. It’s really easy.

The Excel Paste Special Functionality can save us a tonne of time.  One of its great features is OPERATIONS and this can really quickly perform mathematical calculations.

So, let’s take a look at an example. I have sales values for 2018 Quarter 1. I have been asked to generate targets for 2019, which are simply last years sales value with a stretch of 5%. The value of 1.05 is placed in a nearby cell. We will be using this value in a minute.

Instead of inserting a helper column to aid this calculation simply follow the simple steps to use PASTE SPECIAL to multiply.

How To Multiply Using Paste Special

1. Copy the cell value you want to multiply by.  In this example, it is cell D22.
2. Select the range of cells you need to multiply this number by.  In my example, it is B3:B53.
3. Select the Home Tab | Clipboard | Paste Special
4. In the Paste Special Dialogue Box select Multiply
5. Click Ok.  Your new numbers will be updated
6. If you are mad for the Excel Keyboard Shortcuts then you can use the following- Alt + E + S to Open the Paste Special Dialogue Box
7. Alt + E + S + M to use the Multiply Operation

Have you used this method before?

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