Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Using the F9 key in the formula bar in Excel

If you have a long formula in the formula bar and you want a quick way to see the results of part of the fomula then you can use the F9 key. WARNING! Be careful how you use this because this will actually change the formula if you save the changes.

Select the part of the formula you wish to resolve in the formula bar and press F9. The result will replace the formula. Eg =IF(C4<(C5*1.5),TRUE,FALSE) where C4=10 and C5 = 14.
Select the C5*1.5 section and press F9. The selected text will be replaced with 21 which is 14*1.5.
Press ESC (Escape) to undo the changes and stop editing the formula.