Design Your Excel Spreadsheet for Efficiency

The very first line I would like say is “A minute spend on planing, can save hours on execution. Believe it or not this is very true in real life also. Designing and Planing are two parts that make a project successful or set it to a failure. That’s why when you start something, first make a plan for it, then design it according to the plan.
Microsoft Excel is a very powerful tool. If you can design with it, Excel can even run a company, and it does too….. .
When you design a Spreadsheet remember this following rules.

  1. Design it with a long term view.
  2. Spend more time in planning than formating.
  3. Its all about making is easy to use, not for good to see.
  4. Keep all the related data in one continues table.
  5. Store your data logically sorted.
  6. Do not include blank/duplicate fields while designing.

Now some tips for formating worksheets.

  1. Use first two/three rows for heading and try freezing them.
  2. Make from top to bottom, not from left to right.
  3. Use Excel’s default alignments as much as possible (right for texts, left for numbers).
  4. Use colors as less as you can for formating sheets. Use black, gray and white.
  5. Don’t make it a work of art.
  6. Spending much time on formating will cost your efficiency.
  7. Merging can create problems wile using formula bar. use “Center across selection” found on the Alignment tab of the Format Cells dialog under the Horizontal tab.
  8. Never leave any blank column or row in worksheet.

Working with the formulas.
Excel is all about formulas and calculation. The better you use the formula bar the better your out put will be.

  1. Never ever use Manual Calculation Mode, it may cost you a huge lose if you forget to update the calculation just once.
  2. Don’t use whole column or row to calculate. Be specific and describe the range you need to calculate.
  3. Use array functions carefully, it may slow down your performance otherwise

Here are some common mistakes that people make while designing a worksheet.

  • Makes it too colorful and harsh to eyes on a long run.
  • Leave blank cells, rows columns unnecessarily.
  • Merging cells improperly.
  • Making duplicate tables.
  • Don’t sort their data.

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