Legal Research

"Help Desk" - Excel Tips

This tip is from Tom Mighell: "An Excel tip for you today.  Did you know there are two ways to make data entry in a spreadsheet a lot easier?  You may know about one of the ways - when you are typing data that closely matches a previous entry (something that's already in the same column), AutoComplete will suggest a value that matches the previous input.  To accept it (and save typing the rest of the text/numbers), just press Enter.  If you were really typing something else, just keep typing - the AutoComplete entry will go away.

If you have a series of labels or values in a column that repeat, you might want to be able to select from a list of the values that you have already entered in the column.  When you get to the next row, just press ALT+Down Arrow, and you'll get a pick list, with a list of all the unique values/text entries - just select one, and you're done.  These shortcut can definitely save you a lot of data entry time."

Source: Mighell, Tom. The Mighell Marker: A Legal Technology Weekly.  Volume 11, Issue 31. 31 October 2010. Subscribe <http://www.inter-alia.net>.

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on November 03, 2010 (boomark / email).