Excel University Blog

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Functions

Dynamic Scroll Range

By Jeff Lenning | March 11, 2025 |

A spin button in Excel is a great way to create an interactive and dynamic scrolling range for reports, dashboards, or data analysis. In this tutorial, we’ll walk through how to insert a spin button, link it to a cell, and use it to scroll through data by days, weeks, months, quarters, and years. Let’s…

Excel vs ChatGPT

By Jeff Lenning | February 25, 2025 |

When working with messy data, we often turn to Excel, but with the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT, we now have new ways to tackle these challenges. In this post, we’ll compare Excel and ChatGPT side by side, using three common data tasks: We’ll see how each tool handles the job, the pros and…

Fixed Monthly Value Between Dates

By Jeff Lenning | January 21, 2025 |

Today, we’re tackling an interesting challenge: How to add a fixed value to the first day of each month between a start and end date. We’ll explore three approaches, ranging from detailed to concise, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs. Video Step-by-step Tutorial The task is straightforward: We’ll walk through…

Rows of Dependent Drop Downs

By Jeff Lenning | January 14, 2025 |

When working with drop down lists in Excel, creating dependent drop downs that dynamically adapt based on a primary choice is both powerful and time-saving. This post walks through setting up rows of dependent drop downs and concludes with a method to notify users when a secondary choice becomes invalid. Let’s dive in! Video Step-by-step…

Conditionally Format Input Cells

By Jeff Lenning | January 7, 2025 |

Hello, Excel enthusiasts! Today, we’re diving into a neat trick: automatically formatting input cells based on whether they meet specific criteria. The goal? Identify and format cells where the first digit of the input is a “4.” But, you can apply this same technique to other criteria. By the end of this post, you’ll have a clear…

Automatic Check Boxes

By Jeff Lenning | December 31, 2024 |

Have you ever wondered how to set up checkboxes in Excel that check themselves automatically based on the value of another cell? Whether you’re tracking tasks, orders, or reviews, Excel’s checkbox feature can streamline your process. In this blog post, we’ll walk through step-by-step examples to create self-checking checkboxes. Let’s dive in! Video Step-by-step Tutorial…

Highlight Incorrect Answers

By Jeff Lenning | December 17, 2024 |

Hi there! Today, we’re diving into the following Excel question: How do I highlight incorrect answers in a worksheet? It’s a great topic because conditional formatting is such a powerful tool for visualizing data in real time. Whether you’re creating a quiz, a workbook for training, or just need to check values against an answer…

Formula to Remove Duplicates

By Jeff Lenning | December 10, 2024 |

Removing duplicates in Excel is a common task, but what if you want more control than the Remove Duplicates command provides? Maybe you need a formula to handle duplicates dynamically. In this guide, we’ll cover how to remove duplicates from a single column, handle multiple columns, and use formulas for various scenarios like summing, finding…

Sum Positive Numbers Between Dates

By Jeff Lenning | December 3, 2024 |

In this post, we’ll dive into the following Excel question: How do you sum positive values between two dates? Using the SUMIFS function, we’ll walk through three exercises to build a solution step by step. By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to sum data based on multiple conditions. Let’s get started!…

TRIMRANGE

By Jeff Lenning | November 26, 2024 |

Welcome to this post, where we’ll dive into Excel’s TRIMRANGE function and its companion Trim Refs operators. These recent additions make working with dynamic ranges and calculated columns more efficient and intuitive. Note: as of the time of this post, these are in limited release and not all versions of Excel have them. For availability…