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Questions tagged [microsoft-excel]

A spreadsheet application by Microsoft. Use this tag along with [vba] if your question involves programming Excel in VBA, and with [worksheet-function] if it involves an Excel formula or worksheet function. Also add the the specific version tag (e.g. [microsoft-excel-2019] or [microsoft-excel-365]) as features and functions may vary between them.

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables and a macro programming language called VBA (Visual Basic for Applications).

Microsoft Excel 2010

Features and usage

The latest version is Excel 2021 for Windows and macOS. Features include calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables and a macro programming language called VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). A new user-interface design, dubbed the "ribbon", was introduced with Excel 2007 for Windows. A similar UI was introduced to Excel 2011 for OS X.

Excel is the among most widely used spreadsheet programs, especially in business environments. The first version was introduced in 1993, and new versions have been released every 2–3 years since then.

Recent versions

Subscription based license/version

Windows (stand-alone license/version)

Mac (stand-alone license/version)

Other tags

More specific tags include for scripting, for formulas and for pivot tables.

More information

Samples and Tips

25293 questions
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6 answers

Formatting a comma-delimited CSV to force Excel to interpret value as a string

I've been searching around for a while trying to figure out how to output a CSV file in such a way to force Excel to interpret the values as a string and not try to convert them to numbers or dates. e.g.: "141", "10/11/2002", "350.00",…
Simon E.
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How do you force excel to quote all columns of a CSV file?

Excel only places quotes around certain fields, how do I force excel to save a CSV file with quotes around every column?
Michael Shnitzer
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120
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5 answers

How to set character encoding when opening a CSV file in Excel?

Is it possible to set the default encoding for Excel (any version, e.g. 2010) when opening files like csv files (like you can in Open Office Calc)? I When I try to open a csv file encoded in Japanese SHIFT-JIS, it opens but with mojibake (corrupted…
LozzerJP
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118
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5 answers

How to write multi lines in one Excel cell?

I want to write multi-lines in one MS Excel cell. But whenever I press the Enter key, the cell editing ends and the cursor moves to next cell. How can I avoid this?
Wahid Bitar
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118
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2 answers

How to search for ? (question mark) in Excel

When I try to find the question mark character (?) in an Excel sheet, Excel cannot locate the cells containing them. How can I search for ? in Excel?
Mehper C. Palavuzlar
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117
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14 answers

Format a number with optional decimal places in Excel

I have numbers in cells in Excel. I want the numbers formatted so that if they have decimal places they show to a maximum of two, and if they have no decimal places it doesn't show any. For example. 15 should be formatted as 15, NOT…
Ray
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117
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6 answers

How to open semicolon delimited CSV-files in US-version of Excel

When I double-click on a .csv file, it is opened in Excel. The csv-files have columns delimited with semicolons (not commas, but also a valid format). Using a German Windows/Excel setup, the opened file is displayed correctly, the columns are…
Holgerwa
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110
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15 answers

Open Excel files in new window

When I have Excel running and I double click an Excel file in Windows explorer, I'd like it to launch in a new window by default so that I can move documents to separate monitors. Is there any way to get this behavior?
JC.
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103
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16 answers

How to make Excel's "Auto Fit Row Height" feature actually auto fit the row height?

For every generation of Excel I can remember (including 2010, which I'm using now), Excel's "Auto Size Row" features sometimes fails to actually auto size a row when the cell contains wrapped text. When it works properly, all the text is revealed…
devuxer
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102
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8 answers

Cells not updating automatically

I have a formula in a cell which counts the values in 2 other cells. Normally, after entering in the values in these 2 other cells, the formula cell updates automatically when Enter is pressed or when the cells are clicked out of. However, for some…
oshirowanen
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101
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22 answers

How to copy multi-line text from Excel without quotes?

When you create a multi-line string in an excel cell (by using Alt-Enter), if you copy that cell to a text editor, excel will automatically add double quotes (") around the full string, ie: Cell1 | Simple String 1 Cell2 | First line of a …
Andrew Bickerton
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9 answers

In Excel, how do I check if a cell is in a list of values (a range of cells)

I've got a range (A3:A10) that contains names, and I'd like to check if the contents of another cell (D1) matches one of the names in my list. I've named the range A3:A10 'some_names', and I'd like an excel formula that will give me True/False or…
joseph.hainline
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12 answers

For x=3 in Excel, why does = - x^2 + x result in 12 instead of -6?

Suppose my cell A1 in an Excel spreadsheet holds the number 3. If I enter the formula = - A1^2 + A1 in A2, then A2 shows the number 12, when it should show -6 (or -9+3) Why is that? How can I prevent this misleading behaviour?
Rodolfo Oviedo
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91
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3 answers

Go to specific row number in excel

Is there a way in Excel to go to a specific row number? For example I need to find an alternate way to not have to scroll but rather can immediately go to row # 3000
Shades
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5 answers

Can I use an excel formula to extract the link location of a hyperlink in a cell?

I have a spreadsheet with a large number of cells containing hyperlinks with display text different than the hyperlink location ie: cell location: A1 display text = "Site Info" hyperlink location = "http://www.mylocation.com" Is there an excel…
Gigamosh57
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