Please download IntroExcel-Part1-SampleWorkbook.xlsx to follow along with workshop activities.

Throughout this workshop Click refers to a Left Click with your mouse

Tips and Tricks

Excel offers many other ways to organize your sheets and work with your data.

We will discuss how to split text into multiple columns, wrap text, add the date and time, and print headers on every page.

Split text into multiple columns

Let’s say we want to separate our employee’s first and last names in the Salesperson column.

To do this, navigate to the Employee Sales sheet (or Sheet1) in our workbook.

Our first step is to insert a new column to the left of Sales Q1 (Column C).

• Click Column C
• Right click then click Insert

Then, navigate to the Data tab and Data Tools section

• Click Column B to highlight it
• Click Text to Columns
• Select the Delimited option in the pop-up window
• Click Next
• Click the check-mark next to Tab to uncheck the box
• Click to check the box for Space
  • We can now see a preview of what our data will look like
• Click Next
• Click Finish

If you see a There's already data here. Do you want to replace it? pop-up, you will need to insert additional blank columns to ensure that the split text does not replace other data.

Now, since we have two columns with employee names, let’s rename Column B and Column C.

• Click Cell B1 and rename it to Employee First Name
• Click Cell C1 and rename it to Employee Last Name

We can also resize the columns if we need to.

• Click and highlight both Column B and Column C
• Navigate to the Home tab and Cells section
• Click Format
• Click Autofit Column Width

Wrap text

If your data is text-based, you can wrap the text so it appears on multiple lines in a cell.

• Click to highlight the cell, column, or row where you want to wrap text
• Navigate to the Home tab and Alignment section
• Click Wrap Text

Add the date and time

Add today’s date (static)

• Click the cell where you want the date to appear
• Hit Ctrl + ; on your keyboard (same for Mac users)
• Hit Enter on your keyboard

Add the current time (static)

• Click the cell where you want the time to appear
• Hit Ctrl + Shift + ; on your keyboard (Cmd + ; for Mac users)
• Hit Enter on your keyboard

Add today’s date and current time (static)]

• Click the cell where you want the time to appear
• Hit Ctrl + ; on your keyboard (same for Mac users)
• Then hit the Space bar on your keyboard (same for Mac users)
• Hit Ctrl + Shift ; on your keyboard (Cmd + ; for Mac users)
• Hit Enter on your keyboard

Add a date or time that updates (dynamic)

• Click the cell where you today’s date and current time to appear
• Type:
  • =TODAY() : current date that updates
  • =NOW() : current date and time that updates
• Hit Enter on your keyboard

Now the current date and time will update when the workbook/sheet is opened.

Print Headers on Every Page

When an Excel sheet is more than one page, it can be helpful to print the headers on every page.

• Navigate to the Page Layout tab and the Page Setup section
• Click Print Titles
• Navigate to the Sheet tab in the new window
• Below the Print titles section, click into the Rows to repeat at top box
  • Option 1: Type the header cell range (example A1:E4)
  • Option 2: Click the collapse dialog box button then highlight the header cell range
• Click OK

Now the headers will print on every page.