5 Simple Fixes for Common Excel Annoyances

Excel users often develop workarounds for its quirks, which can become ingrained in their muscle memory over time. However, some of these annoyances have surprisingly simple solutions that can be implemented in just a few minutes.

Tony Phillips, an experienced Microsoft Office user, shares five common Excel issues that can be easily fixed: the Ctrl+Z key undoing changes in another workbook, Excel not autofilling alphabet sequences, formulas covering cells, Alt+Tab not jumping between worksheets, and PERSONAL.XLSB files causing File in Use messages.

Phillips explains that when working with multiple workbooks, it's essential to give each file its own undo history. This can be achieved by opening the workbook in a separate instance of Excel, which can be done by holding Alt, right-clicking the Excel icon, and clicking 'Open or Excel.'

This allows each workbook to have its unique undo history, preventing Ctrl+Z from undoing changes in other workbooks. Additionally, Phillips recommends adding alphabet sequences to Excel's Custom Lists to enable autofill for alphabetical data.