Yes Virginia, Spreadsheets Really Can Do Anything... Well, Almost Anything.

Just think of a spreadsheet as the world's largest bingo card. B-52... G-19... Z-64,567... Man, wouldn't black-out be a real killer.

Seriously, if you can play a game of bingo, you can work a spreadsheet.

Spreadsheets columns are labeled across the top with letters from A to Z. After Z, it starts over with an A, like AA, AB, AC, AD... eventually going to BA, BB, BC, BD... and so on.

The rows are numbered and can go as high as 1 million with Excel 2007.

The point where a column and row intersect is called a cell. The cells are where all the action is on the spreadsheet. They can contain numbers, text, or formulas.

In Excel 97 - 2003 there are 16,777,216 cells per worksheet, 65,536 rows, and 256 columns. Each cell can hold 32,767 characters and each workbook can contain unlimited worksheets (limited only by your computer's memory).

Excel 2007 has 17,179,869,184 cells per worksheet, 1,048,576 rows, and 16,384 columns. Yes, that's 17 billion cells... talk about giving your grandma a run for her money at the next bingo night.

The cool thing about spreadsheets is its ability to automatically recalculate the entire sheet every time you change a number in just one cell. No need to hit the Jack Daniel anymore when you need to make a little ledger correction on line 64 of 1,000. This feature alone was the spreadsheets claim to fame and is still arguably the most valuable feature of any spreadsheet application.

Today, spreadsheets don't have to look so boring, plain, and nerdy. You can make them come alive with graphics, charts, animations, tables, and other interactive elements. A spreadsheet can take on almost any look and form; you can even create one to look and feel like a web page.

Now you're armed and ready for spreadsheet Jeopardy... (Is there such a thing?)

Okay... Okay... I confess... I have a pet p when it comes to spreadsheets. I absolutely cannot stand all those gridlines all over the place. They make a spreadsheet look... well, geeky.

Why not make a spreadsheet as cool as possible and only use those gridlines when you want it to look like a nerdy ledger. It's easy, takes 5 seconds, and you've got no excuse because I'm showing you how to do it today.

Excel 97 - 2003 users, go to the Tools menu and click on Options. Then towards the bottom left of the dialog box, uncheck the box next to Gridlines. Now, take a deep breath... your spreadsheet just became a little bit cooler than it was a second ago.

Excel 2007 users, just select the View ribbon and uncheck the box next to Gridlines. Now, you're cool, too.

What if you need gridlines in a specific spot? No problem.

Excel 97 -2003 users, highlight the cells / area where you want gridlines. Next, go to the Format menu and select Cells. On the dialog box select the Border tab and then click the buttons labeled Outline and Inside. Presto, you got your gridlines.

In Excel 2007, highlight the cells and then right mouse click on one of them. In the pop-up menu, select Format Cells. This will bring up the format dialog box of which you will select the Border tab and click the buttons labeled Outline and Inside.

Now you can use those nerdy little gridlines with a little more form and style and I will sleep a little better with this "border line compulsive" pet p off my chest.

I remember it like it was just yesterday...


Now that I think about it, it really was just yesterday.

There I was working away on an intense spreadsheet and needed a particular formula copied down 1,000 rows. So I did my basic spreadsheet warm-up, first stretching my fingers, doing wrist rolls, all while keeping my heart rate low, of course. Being one of the world's top keyboard shortcut navigators I figured I probably had about 10 minutes of intense spreadsheet cardio.

With piercing determination and fire in my eyes, I began to copy and paste each cell down the sheet. In the quiet hum of my computer you could hear the clicks; CLICK... "Ctrl - C" to copy... CLICK: Down Arrow... CLICK: Ctrl - V to paste... CLICK... Down Arrow... CLICK, CLICK, CLICK...

And that's the very moment when I got to thinking... there has to be a better way.

Meet The Fill Command

A physical therapist worst nightmare, the Fill Command. With this nifty little Excel feature, no more finger cramps, wrist lock-ups, or keyboard defacing. What previously took, well... forever, now only takes seconds. Here's how it works.

When you need text, data, or formulas copied numerous times either down, up, left or right on your sheet the Fill Command can handle the task. Just click on the cell you need copied and then move your mouse to the bottom right of the cell. When your mouse is on the exact bottom right corner, your pointer will turn into a crosshair. Now left click with your mouse and hold on tight, then move your mouse the direction you want to copy the information. When you got your mouse to where you want it, just let it go and presto. You just saved yourself from some bad carpal tunnel.

Let's quantify the true significance of this discovery with an Excel formula, shall we.

In cell A1 type the number "1", representing 1 day. In cell A2 type the formula =1+A1, this will automatically add an additional day down the column. Now move your mouse to cell A2, select the cell, grab the crosshair, and then move the mouse down to A10 and let go. You should have 1,2,3,4... 10 down the left of your spreadsheet. Ahh, the Fill Command.

Now, in cell B2 type the number 10, representing the ten minutes I have saved with the Fill Command. Again, move your mouse to cell B1, click to select the cell, grab the crosshair, and drag it down to cell B10. This should have just repeated the number 10 down the spreadsheet.

Next, in cell C1 type the formula =A1*B1, multiplying the number of day by the minutes saved. One more time, select cell C1, grab the crosshair, and drag it down to C10. You are now looking at how much time I just added to my life over the next 10 days with my spreadsheet project... isn't that great?

The way I see it, if I use the Fill Command to save 10 minutes a day on the average of about 50 day a year, I am saving 500 minutes a year. That's 10,000 minutes over the next 20 years, which is 166 hours. Just 2 hours short of adding an entire week of freedom to my life. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an important golf game I need to attend to.