Excel Time-Savers - 5 Hidden Features for Busy People

You'll learn 5 Excel features that are mega time-savers. Useful for beginners and advanced Excel users. All of these tips are easy to apply for any level. Here's what we cover:
1. Quick-Jump Excel Bookmarks: Navigating across a large workbook can be challenging. If only there were built-in bookmarks in Excel. There's a trick to achieve the same result, though: use the Name Box.
2. Analyze Data for instant insights: You need to quickly analyze an unfamiliar dataset? Why not outsource it to AI! There's an AI feature built into Excel that can do it for you. You'll find it on the Home tab, it's called Analyze Data. When you run it, it will auto-generate some ready-to-use insights in the form of pivot tables and pivot charts, or you can ask for something specific, like "give me 5 products with lowest customer ratings". It will interpret the question in data analyst terms and prepare a pivot table for you. You can then simply insert it into your report.
3. One-Click Forecasting: Would you like to forecast your future sales revenues based on past data? Select the dataset, go to the Data tab and click on Forecast Sheet. Future sales data is automatically forecasted, even accounting for seasonality.
4. Quick Analysis Tool: This one packs a whole bunch of features in a single shortcut. It's like your personal Excel assistant that you can ask for almost anything. Select the data you're working with, then press Ctrl+Q to bring up the Quick Analysis menu. It allows you to add conditional formatting, charts, totals, tables and sparklines based on your data.
5. The ultimate timesaver - Power Query: I've saved the best for last. You probably know by now that Power Query is my favorite tool. It allows you to grab data from many different sources, like text/csv, web, pdf, and more. But it also allows you to do complex transformations on the data right there in your workbook in a couple of very simple clicks. In the video, I show you how to pivot a column, but there's a ton more that you can achieve with this amazing tool. And the best part? It's fully dynamic. When your data grows, all you have to do is refresh.

00:00 Excel Timesaver features
00:20 Excel Bookmarks
02:16 How to delete a bookmark
02:30 AI Powered Data Analysis
04:29 One-Click Forecasting
06:27 Quick Analysis Tool
08:48 Power Query the ultimate timesaver
09:42 Convert Rows to Columns with Power Query (pivot data)
11:45 Learn Power Query from scratch
13:37 Wrap Up

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#Excel

[LeilaGharani]

Let's excel together! 💪
P.S. Addressing this here since I saw it in the comments - "Why not use a pivot table?" Very smart question - and the answer is you can certainly use a pivot table - why I didn't use one is because originally I'd added some gaps in the data but I went over 10 clicks 😁 during the cleaning process. The advantage with PQ as you probably know by now is the cleaning we can do before and also that the data can come from another file or another source. One advantage of using PQ here instead of a Pivot table is we don't have the restriction with the pivot table layout. That does annoy me sometimes🙂

[JakeSmith-jykx]

I’m solid with excel, and yet Leila still teaches me something every time!

[TonyaPotter-qy]

Lelia's Power Query course is amazing! I learned so much and was able to automate several time consuming reporting tasks and save hours of work. I have also taken the VBA and Dashboard courses which were also extremely helpful. The skills I learned from Lelia have allowed me to impress my managers and become the go to for our division for complex Excel tasks. This took me to the next level in my career. I recommend Leila's courses to anyone who wants to build or improve their Excel skills.

[arashy]

Using the Name box for bookmarking a cell within a tab of a large spreadsheet—brilliant!

[EricaDyson]

You're right.. I won't live without these now! Thanks so much

[chrism]

Thanks Leila! By far, Power Query is my favorite. As I've improved my PQ skills (and DAX and Power BI), I have dramatically increased my efficiency. Also, on tip #1 for navigation, another way to quickly navigate is to right-click on the left-right arrow right before the first sheet tab in the workbook (right above where it says "Ready"). An Activate box pops up, and you can quickly choose the sheet you want.

[piggybankaccountant]

3:05 I teach a lot of people on filter top and bottom values (using normal filters) It's so unknown and save so much time! Thanks Leila for the great Analyze AI Tip!!!

[MelanieOnDemand]

I’m one of the 51, 323 students! Truly life changing, Leila! Thanks!❤️

[kiankarimi]

Thank you so much for introducing all these marvelous tricks 👌👍🙏

[dshields-library]

The tip about Bookmarks is enhanced by the Go To, Ctrl-G, keyboard shortcut. Ctrl-G opens a dialog box showing the available bookmarks (along with tables) in the upper window titled "Go to:". Click the desired bookmark to go there. Then, to go back to where you started, click Ctrl-G again. The location of the prior cell (before clicking Ctrl-G initially) appears in the lower window titled "Reference". Click ok and you are back to where you started.
In one of my large workbooks, I have a sheet called "Clipboard" where I store repeatedly used text and that I have bookmarked. Ctrl-G facilitates copying and pasting from the Clipboard worksheet in this workbook.

[elphau]

power query is the ultimate winner !!!

[neclis]

Alright, you got me. I came here thinking this was yet another YouTube clickbait vid. You got me good. Very solid tips. Thanks a lot 🙏

[donald-parker]

I've been retired for 6 years and I almost never use Excel anymore. Its mind blowing how much has changed. In my last couple of years the whole Power BI and Power Query stuff was new and it was a source of frustration that, while very similar, there were big differences between Excel and Power BI. It would be interesting to revisit that ecosystem and how things are going. Do they have feature parity now? Do they interact better now?

[pbrillo]

Je vous encourage vivement de suivre les cours de Leila que j'ai par ailleurs déjà suivis.👌

[ThePattersonPod]

Pivot columns! That’s what I’ve wanted on a power query problem. Thank you!

[ravitejam]

Thanks for mentoring and making lives easier! ❤️ from India

[vijayarjunwadkar]

I was wondering about Thursday videos missing and then this came and "hi five" 🙌 to you Leila, for the 5 hidden "gems" you revealed! The "Power Query" was the "Top Cherry" for sure. Thanks for all the great knowledge you possess and pass on! Stay blessed! 🙂

[vishvashah]

Ohh my goodness !!! I absolutely love the way you explain MS excel, MS PowerPoint. You have nice presentation skills. You know how to attract customers.

[mrbassman]

Excellent video! I've been using Excel for over 20 years and had ro do all of this the hard way, which was the only way. On one hand, this cheapens my experience, but it's such a time saver that you can't help but appreciate it.

[somendra_wpradhan]

Thanks Leila your videos are very clear and focused. I am learning a lot. I started with Lotus 123 in late 1980's and then Excel and the transformation is amazing. There is so much we can do now and you have been a great source for me to learn and admire the power of excel. It's a universe to be explored and learn from. best wishes