Excel: Tips/Tricks--Double Click

Hello again and welcome to the Learning and Technology Services tutorial on Excel Tips
and Tricks: Double Clicking Magic. Double clicking is something that you have
got to learn. In cell B2, If I click inside of it, I have “Regular Academic Session,”
but I can’t read all the information. If I go up to the line between the row B and
C (notice where my cursor is right now) and double click, I will automatically open up
that column to the largest cell that is in that column. If I left-clicked and held, I
could size this column to whatever width I wanted, but that double click is a certain
amount of magic. If I wanted to do the entire Excel at one
time, I am going to click to the left of A and above 1 in that little icon that has a
triangle in it. Then I can go to any line (notice my cursor and how it has changed),
and double click. All of my columns will open up. Now A is way too wide, but now I can read
column G the entire width. So, I can go back and edit a few at a time. Try that out.
Another piece of double clicking magic is collapsing the ribbon area. If you find this
annoying or if you need more space for the spreadsheet to appear, double click on any
of the tabs at the top and notice it collapses the ribbon. Sometimes you do this by mistake
and you wonder where your ribbon is. Well, double click and you’ve got it back. So,
double click to hide the ribbon. If you click once it is there, but it disappears. Double
click to get it back. Getting around inside of your Excel can be
done with double-clicks too. I’m going to click inside of B1 and put my cursor at the
lower border of that cell and double click. I go all the way to the bottom, row 263, just
by hitting the bottom of the cell. I’m going to put the cursor at the top border of the
cell, and I go back up to row 1. Double click on the right side of the cell and I move over.
Notice I’m moving over until there’s a blank space. If I double click I will go one
more cell, but if I double click again I’ll go all the way over to column T of that particular
cell. My next trick of double clicking is on Autofill.
I’m going to scroll down in my Excel sheet to row 62 where I have a bunch of blank cells.
Now let’s say that I know that the number that has to go in this cell is 15. In the
bottom right hand corner there is a little dot called the “handle.” If you put your
cursor on it the cursor becomes a crosshair. I’m going to double click, and it automatically
fills down all the empty spaces. Let’s say that I have to format these numbers
with a color. I’m going to go to my home tab, and I am going to fill them with red
and bold them. That is something significant—I need to have them red and bolded in order
to set some information apart. If I go up on my home tab to “format painter” and
double click, I can go in and set whatever I want to be bold and red. I’ve picked up
the formatting from this cell, and put it in this. Now notice that whenever I click
something, it’s going to make it bold and red. In order to get rid of the formatting
all you have to do is click the “format painter” so it is no longer yellow, and
then the formatting will stop. If I want to edit a particular cell. Let’s
say, for instance, instead of “Instructor” I need it to say “Instructors.” I can
double click (notice that I have my blinking cursor) and I can edit right inside my cell.
I can always edit up in this area also, but sometimes it’s nicer to just edit within
a cell. If I want to close this Excel, I go up to
this Excel icon in the top left corner of my window, and I double click. I can save
it, not save, or cancel. There are probably many more double clicking
examples that I could give you. Each year I go out and look on Google. Go out to Google,
say “Excel” and maybe add “+double clicks.” See what you can find.
Thank you, and come back and see the rest of the tutorials that we have waiting for
you out on the LTS online help page. Thank you.