We’ve all had to deal with one type of software or another where we go in and have absolutely no clue where to start. Or we learn the basics and nothing much else. The same goes for the average person’s experience with Google products.: Google Docs and Google Excel are two of the most commonly used softwares to date but yet few take the time to truly get to know their secrets. Today, the spotlight will be on Google Excel: one of the most innovative and commonplace softwares Google has to offer. Memorize these tips and tricks to impress your fellow Google-users in your workplace, personal life, or wherever you may use this brilliant program.
Lock up your data
For group collaboration, this tip is especially helpful. Instead of having to go over what each of your teammates did or did not do and whose section is for whom, you can lock up your data cells so that no one else can access them. Go to the top left corner and find the section titled ‘data.’ Then, find the subsection that says ‘protective sheets and ranges.’ All you have to do is select whatever you don’t want your peers to mess with, and then the data is all yours! This is a great tip for college and high school students who are learning to collaborate with their peers on the web and have less… erm, contributing folks on their team.
Using AI to your advantage
AI is on Google Excel. Didn’t know that? Neither did I! Click on the ‘explore button’ in the lower right corner of your Google Excel where you can browse either preselected questions or ask your own, and the device will do the work for you to predict what the answer will be. You can ask questions about averages, assessing data and trends, and creating new charts based on your input. This cuts down the process of finding equations for achieving averages and means by letting the software do it, giving you more time to collect your data for future upcoming Excel projects!
Limitlessly hooking sheets up to other software
Have you ever scrolled Instagram or other social media sites and worried about the data that would, seemingly, be impossible to access? Data about trends, users, follows, anything you could imagine? (Pure statistical heaven) Good news: there’s a website that will help you not only find this data but also link up to your Google Excel. To start, get an account with a compatible website like IFTTT (If This Then That), which will ask you to sign into whatever services you’d prefer to link up, and bam: you now have access to whatever social media data you’d like to track.
Add images inside your cells
Okay, so maybe this isn’t the most complex one on the list but it’s most certainly one that is largely unknown to the Google Excel community. There’s a way to easily and successfully insert an image inside your sheets to add some flare into your work. It’s quite simple: write =IMAGE in the chosen cell, include open parentheses, pop in the URL to your image, then close the parentheses. Your image will appear fresh and clear inside your document to better sense what your spread is about.
Across the interwebs: including data from other sheets
As we all know, copying and pasting inside Google Excel can be a bit of a chore: especially if you have cells and cells worth of data that you want to share. Instead of taking too long copying and pasting, you can simply transfer the data over to your current document by using the “IMPORT RANGE” function. This essentially means that, using these instructions, your selected segments from a particular document will transfer over by just inputting the following equation: =IMPORTRANGE(“Url of Sheet to link to”, “Sheet and cell references”). At the conclusion of this process, you’ll end up with a beautiful addition of cells to your Google Excel sheet: all without the hassle of copying and pasting!
These essential, advanced tips will greatly increase your success when experiencing your work in the Google Excel world alongside similar software.
