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Excel Training

The Joy of Excel 2010 Templates

I love time-saving tips and templates are a great way of setting up new worksheets without the hard work of formatting, setting up formulas and trying to make things look good.  What I really want to do, is on get on with “the important stuff” of entering the data quickly, so that I can analyse the results and get the positive work outcomes I need.

Today’s mission, was to set up a basic time sheet for the different projects I am working on, and logging the time I spend on each one, so I can report back to each “client” on what I’ve done and how long it has taken.  I can then use this data to generate invoices, or project costings for example.

In Excel 2010, I selected File, New – and I am given a smorgasbord of options…this is where I can look through suggested ready-made templates.

Excel 2010 Templates selection
Screen shot of templates available in Excel 2010.

I chose “Time Sheets”, which gave me four options – from which I chose “Daily Time Sheet”, and downloaded it to my computer. It looks like this:

Template for WorkSheet, ready for editing
The template ready for editing to my requirements

I then edited the sheet to show the titles and information I want to include and saved it.  Now I can easily add my client’s details, add a scheduled time for work and log what work was completed, for which client.  So now it looks like this:

Excel training templates 2010 to save time
My edited version of the timesheet so that the fields reflect what I need.

No messing with formulas, formatting or fuss…Job done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Excel Training

Showing text from another cell (concatenation)

Today I wanted to be able to show the text which was stored in another cell, within a ‘string’ of text.

I wanted to have a name ‘John’ as plain text in cell C3. In cell A1, I wanted to be able to display ‘Hello <whatever is in cell C3>’.

My colleague Doug here at Best STL taught me how to do it: Concatenation.

This is the formula:

=”Hello “&C3

Simple as that.

Concatenation example in Excel
Concatenation example in Excel

Now I can update the name in cell C3 and all cells that reference will be changed instantly.

Thanks Doug!