Having It Your Way…

I think most of us would agree that Excel will, by default, usually pick the best option for how it operates. This is, of course, Not Always true, so the following are Three Great Tricks to make Excel do things Your Way.

Compatibility
Since you are an Excel Enthusiast, you probably have a comparatively current version of Excel. There are, of course, many people out there who are still using Office 2003 (or even earlier versions).

That being the case, sending them an .XLSX file will be a problem for them. You can easily remove this potential issue by setting your default save format as Excel 97-2003. Simply choose File / Options / Save / Excel 97-2003 Workbook.

Compress Your Images
When possible, it is good to add visual elements to what may otherwise be another dull spreadsheet. However, if you embed pictures or other graphical elements in your Excel spreadsheet, they can vastly increase the file size. If you need to email the spreadsheet, you can greatly reduce the size by simply compressing all the pictures in the worksheet.

Select one of the pictures and under Picture Tools. In the Adjust group, choose Compress Pictures. Select the level of compression you want to use and Badda-Bing, smaller file!

Use Manual Calculations
Here is a handy trick for saving computer resources. Although contemporary computers have a wealth of power, performing Excel calculations in real time on very large complex spreadsheets can eat up time and cause significant lags.

By default, Excel updates each value as you input numbers or change data. This is good in general, but if it is causing an issue, you can disable this feature by going to the Formulas tab of the ribbon and choosing Calculation Options / Manual from the Calculation group. To update your calculations, simply press F9 to make everything current. (The trick is, of course, not to forget this…)

Three handy tricks for Having It Your Way in Excel!