Excel sheets can get messy, especially if multiple people work on them or data is imported from other sources. This can lead to inconsistencies, duplicates, and formatting issues. Over time, I’ve picked up a few tricks that turn even the worst chaos into something clean, organized, and actually useful.
6Clean Up the Formatting
An Excel sheet with inconsistent formatting can look ugly. You can use theFormat Painterto copy formatting from one part of the sheet and paste it into another, making it uniform.
To use the Format Painter, select a formatted cell and clickFormat Painter(the paintbrush icon) in theClipboardsection of theHometab to copy its formatting. The cursor will become a brush with a plus sign when the Format Painter is on. Afterward, click and drag to select the range of cells to which you want to apply the formatting.
After applying formatting, the Format Painter will be deselected, meaning you have to repeat the steps above to consistently format other parts of the sheet. To prevent this from happening, double-clickFormat Painterso it remains selected after applying the formatting. ClickFormat Painteragain or pressESCto deselect it.
You might also just want to remove the formatting altogether if it doesn’t look good. To do that, select the cells with the formatting and clickClear > Clear Formatsin the Editing section of the ribbon.
5Trim Unnecessary Spaces
Another thing that doesn’t look good in an Excel sheet is leading, trailing, and multiple spaces. For example, instead of a name appearing as “John Smith,” it might be “John Smith” or " John Smith," which can make reporting and analysis inaccurate. you’re able to fix these issues with theTRIM function in Exceland a helper cell.
For instance, if the range starts at cellA1, enter the following formula in a blank cell (the helper cell in this case) to get rid of any unnecessary spaces in the value inA1:
Afterward, drag the handle of the helper cell to the adjacent cells to fill the other cells. Excel will intelligently detect that you want to trim spaces from the cells next toA1and so on, and create more helper cells.
Now copy the values in the trimmed range and paste them into the original to replace the extra spaces.
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4Fill Empty Cells With Values
If the Excel sheet has empty cells, there are several ways you’re able to find them and ensure they have a value. My favorite way is the Go to Special feature, which is anautofill trick in Excel. It will allow you to insert a value in all the blank cells at once or fill them in one by one for more precision.
To use it, select the range with the blank cells and clickFind & Select > Go to Specialin the ribbon of theHometab to open the Go To Special dialog box. Alternatively, you can pressCtrl + G.
Tick theBlankradio button and then clickOKto select all the blank cells in the range.
To fill all the blank cells at once, enter a value in the first highlighted cell and then pressCtrl + Enter. All the cells will then be filled with that value.
If the cells require different values, enter a value in the blank cell and pressTabto move to the next one until you have filled all of them.
3Remove Duplicate Data
As you examine your Excel sheet, you might find that it contains duplicate rows. If there are many of them, chances are your human brain can miss a few. This can give you false insights when you analyze the data.
You cansave your sanity by using conditional formattingto highlight them and take a closer look. But the easiest way to get rid of them is to use the Remove Duplicates tool.
To use it, select the range with the duplicate rows, select theDatatab, and clickRemove Duplicatesin theData Toolssection of the ribbon.
In the Remove Duplicates dialog box, you will see where all the duplicates are. ClickOKto remove them.
2Ensure Consistent Text Case
Consistent text case, whether uppercase, lowercase, or first letter capitals, is essential for a professional-looking sheet. Fixing inconsistent cases one by one can be time-consuming, depending on how big the sheet is. Luckily, you can easily fix it with functions like UPPER, LOWER, and PROPER in combination with a helper cell.
Take a look at the table below that we will be using for our example. To fix this, you need to convert the text inA1(the starting header) into a helper cell and then apply it to the rest of the cells in the header.
To do this, select a blank cell and enter the following formula:
Now, drag the fill handle to the adjacent cells in the row—you will see that Excel will intelligently fill it with data fromA2,A3, and so on. Afterward, copy those values and paste them into the original range.
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1Split Data Into Multiple Columns
Sometimes you might want to split certain data, such as first names, last names, addresses, or emails that are split by delimiters (e.g., commas, spaces, and slashes), into different columns. Instead of cutting and pasting them into separate columns, you can use the Text to Columns feature.
To do that, select the delimited data and clickText to Columnsin theData Toolssection of theDatatab. Ensure theDelimitedradio button is selected and clickNext.
In theDelimiterssection, tick the ones you want to use to split the text and clickFinish.
Afterward, you should see the text split into columns based on how it is delimited.
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These Excel tips can transform a chaotic spreadsheet into a well-organized, professional document. By implementing these simple yet effective techniques, you’ll save time, reduce errors, and make your data more reliable and easier to analyze.
