Excel Guides
Practical, in-depth guides for Excel and Google Sheets — formula tutorials, error fixes, how-to walkthroughs, and side-by-side function comparisons.
Formula Tutorials(13)
How to Use IFERROR in Excel
IFERROR replaces formula errors with a value you choose. Useful for clean lookups — but don't let it hide real bugs.
How to Use IF Statements in Excel
The IF function returns one value when a condition is true and another when false — the foundation of Excel logic.
How to Use COUNTIF and COUNTIFS in Excel
COUNTIF counts cells meeting one condition; COUNTIFS handles multiple. Great for tallies, duplicate-checking, and reports.
How to Use SUMIF and SUMIFS in Excel
SUMIF adds numbers meeting one condition; SUMIFS handles multiple. Watch the argument order — it differs between them.
How to Use INDEX and MATCH in Excel
INDEX and MATCH together are the flexible VLOOKUP alternative — they look any direction and survive column changes.
How to Use VLOOKUP in Excel
VLOOKUP looks up a value in the first column of a range and returns a value from a column to its right. Here's how to use it right.
How to Combine Text in Excel (CONCATENATE & More)
Join text with the & operator for simple cases, or TEXTJOIN for lists with separators. Use TEXT to keep number formatting.
How to Use LEFT, RIGHT, and MID in Excel
LEFT, RIGHT, and MID extract parts of text. Combined with FIND, they handle almost any text-splitting task.
How to Use Date Functions in Excel
Excel stores dates as numbers, which makes date math simple. Here are the essential date functions with examples.
How to Use SUMPRODUCT in Excel
SUMPRODUCT multiplies ranges and sums the result — and handles conditional math that SUMIFS and COUNTIFS can't.
How to Use TEXTJOIN and CONCAT in Excel
TEXTJOIN combines text with a separator and can skip blank cells — solving the doubled-separator problem of old methods.
How to Use the IFS Function in Excel
IFS replaces messy nested IF statements with a clean list of condition/result pairs, returning the first match.
How to Calculate Percentages in Excel
The percentage formulas you'll actually use: proportion, percentage change, and increasing or decreasing by a percentage.
Fixing Excel Errors(10)
How to Fix the #NULL! Error in Excel
#NULL! means you put a space (the intersection operator) between ranges that don't overlap — usually a typo for a comma.
How to Fix the #NAME? Error in Excel
#NAME? means Excel doesn't recognize a word in your formula — usually a misspelled function or missing quotes around text.
How to Fix the #N/A Error in Excel
#N/A means a lookup couldn't find the value. Often it's expected — or it's a hidden spaces / text-vs-number mismatch.
How to Fix the #DIV/0! Error in Excel
#DIV/0! means dividing by zero or an empty cell. Fix it by checking the denominator with IF, or wrapping in IFERROR.
How to Fix the #VALUE! Error in Excel
#VALUE! means a formula got text where it expected a number. Find the non-numeric cell and convert or clean it.
How to Fix the #REF! Error in Excel
#REF! means a formula points to a cell that no longer exists — usually after a deletion. Undo, or rebuild the broken reference.
How to Fix Circular Reference Errors in Excel
A circular reference is a formula that depends on its own result. Find it via Formulas > Error Checking, then break the loop.
How to Fix ##### (Pound Signs) in Excel
##### isn't really an error — the column is just too narrow. Double-click the column border to auto-fit and it disappears.
How to Fix the #NUM! Error in Excel
#NUM! means a formula produced an impossible or too-large number — like the square root of a negative, or a non-converging IRR.
How to Fix the #SPILL! Error in Excel
#SPILL! means a dynamic array formula has no room to output its results. Usually a cell in the spill range isn't empty.
How-To Guides(7)
How to Use Conditional Formatting in Excel
Conditional formatting colors cells automatically based on their values — highlights, data bars, color scales, and formula rules.
How to Create a Pivot Table in Excel
Pivot tables summarize large datasets by dragging fields into Rows, Columns, and Values. Simpler than they look.
How to Remove Duplicates in Excel
Excel offers several ways to handle duplicates: the Remove Duplicates button, conditional formatting to highlight, or UNIQUE and COUNTIF.
The Best Excel Books & References Worth Owning
Three Excel references worth owning, from a $7 laminated desk card to a complete all-in-one Office manual — with honest tradeoffs.
How to Unprotect an Excel Sheet
Unprotect a sheet via Review > Unprotect Sheet, entering the password if set. Know sheet vs workbook vs file-open protection.
How to Merge Cells in Excel (and When Not To)
Merge cells with Home > Merge & Center — but merged cells break sorting and formulas. Center Across Selection is usually better.
How to Create a Drop-Down List in Excel
Drop-down lists restrict cells to a fixed set of choices, built with Data Validation. Type the items or reference a range.