04 May2012
Go To Special in Excel
Just as a GPS is a handy gadget for a stubborn guy who refuses to ask for directions, Excel’s Go To Special feature quickly finds and selects cells in a spreadsheet without all of the U-turns and dead ends. The Go To Special window can be launched under the Find and Replace button in Excel 2010 and it offers a plethora of options to choose from.
One of the most useful abilities of Go To Special is selecting blank cells. For example, I first select all of the cells in a table (A1:D6 shown below). In the Go To Special window, I select the Blanks option. After clicking on OK, the empty cells in the table are selected.
With the empty cells selected, I can then change the cells’ background color to yellow, for example. I can also enter a value for the cells, such as zero, making the value apply to all of them at once by holding the Ctrl key while pressing enter.
The Errors option (under Formulas) in the Go To Special screen will select all of the cells with errors. It’s a fast and effective way of making sure a spreadsheet is error-free. After all, few things are more embarrassing than giving someone a spreadsheet with errors where there are supposed to be numbers.
How have the other Go To Special options been helpful for you? Please share by leaving a comment below.
Tags: Excel, Go To Special, Save Time
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Tim Gavin
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If I have subtotals or grouping and I have collapsed the detail, I can use go to special to select only the visible cells
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Brian Germain
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I took a worksheet and did subtotals now if I take some of those amounts and put in another worksheets it does not add correctly it doubles cause of the formulas, I know I can get rid some how using go special but not working can you help?
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