Quick, clean, and to the point


Excel data validation guide
Data validation can help control what a user can enter into a cell. You could use data validation to make sure a value is a number, a date, or to present a dropdown menu with predefined choices to a user. This guide provides an overview of the data validation feature.
Generate weekend dates only with a simple formula
Sure, you can use a complicated WEEKDAY formula to generate a list of weekends. But with WORKDAY.INTL, you can do the same thing with a WAY simpler formula. The trick is to use a special 7-digit "mask" to filter out all dates except weekends.

You have a fixed monthly payment, a start date, and a given number of months. You have five years shown on the worksheet. What formula can you use to sum total payments by year?

Friendly, dynamic messages with concatenation
In this article, we explain how to use concatenation to display friendly and useful messages in your spreadsheets. The messages are dynamic and respond instantly to changes, so the effect is polished and professional.
Use the EOMONTH function to get the last day of a month
The EOMONTH function is one of those little gems in Excel that can save you a lot of trouble. It's a simple function that does just one thing: given a date, it returns the last day of a month. You can use EOMONTH to build all kinds of useful Excel formulas.
Fiddles with new CONCAT & TEXTJOIN functions
The CONCATE and TEXTJOIN functions make it possible to join values together in a range of cells. Since a range is just an array, this opens the door to some interesting new formulas that loop through values.
How to create named ranges in Excel
Named ranges make formulas easier to read, faster to develop, and more portable. They're also useful for data validation, hyperlinks, and dynamic ranges. This article shows you how you can use named ranges to build better spreadsheets.
Replace IF with MAX or MIN
In this article, we show you how to replace a complicated IF statement with a clever and compact formula based on MIN or MAX. This is a great tip any time you need to choose the smaller or greater of two values inside a formula.
Conditional formatting with formulas
Formulas let you access the full power of Excel to apply conditional formatting with exactly the logic you need. This article shows how to highlight rows, column differences, missing values, and how to build Gantt charts and search boxes with CF formulas.
All about nested IFs
Like a clock, the MOD function repeats
How to set the default template used for new workbooks in Excel
Formulas for finding text in Excel
Excel shortcuts on a Mac
Popular Excel shortcuts
We asked users how important Excel shortcuts are to them and also about their favorite shortcuts. This is what we learned...
The evil scroll lock enabled in Excel 2010
Your report is due in an hour. You're working along in Excel, when suddenly you notice that you can no longer move around properly. Is it, perhaps, the evil Scroll Lock?
Learn Excel formulas and differentiate yourself
If you've ever wondered whether learning Excel formulas is worth your time, this list is for you. Formulas are the glue that hold spreadsheets together all over the world, and your skill with them can help you in many ways.
How to use VLOOKUP - things you need to know
Although VLOOKUP is a pretty simple function, there is plenty that can go wrong. Quickly learn more than 20 things you should know about VLOOKUP to make your experience pleasant and profitable.
Danger: beware VLOOKUP defaults
By default, VLOOKUP will match in approximate mode, which can be disastrous. Learn how to avoid this problem by always setting the match mode yourself.

In this formula puzzle, we look at truck location GPS data, and ask: what formula will calculate the hours that each truck was stopped during the day?