Just saying the name Google Sheets can be enough to cause anxiety for even the most experienced spreadsheet user.
A page of Google Sheets signifies work. And spreadsheets are laborious things.
They aren’t, however, if you have basic knowledge of simple formulas that make Google Sheets work for you.
When you hear Google Sheets and have these five important formulas at your disposal, you won’t worry again about how tedious the task is ahead.
1. The Today Calendar Formula
This is the calendar formula you will never stop using, particularly if you frequently enter today’s date into Google Sheets.
In this formula, you are using the function called “Today” and adding parentheses to it.
For the Google Sheets cell, you are going to write “=TODAY()” just as is, entering the formula without the quotation marks, regardless of the topic of your sheets, business, or household needs. Today’s date will automatically populate and will do so in day/month/year formatting unless you format it otherwise.
This is an ideal formula if you have a list of children and want them all to see what chores or tasks need to be done today, or the same if you run a business or department and have employees. You are simply copying this formula into the cell and it populates for you.
2. The Sum Function That’s Easy to Forget
It is usually one of the first formulas learned when you are learning spreadsheets, but it is an easy one to forget when you have a mountain of numbers to contend with.
You can add the entire contents of a single row or column in the range that you choose. Instead of adding each one manually, or using the sigma feature, you can simply enter “=SUM(cell range)”, entering the formula without the quotation marks in the cell, and you have an easy SUM formula.
You can copy and paste this formula elsewhere in the spreadsheet but will need to remember to change the cell numbers specifically in the spreadsheet to get accurate sums.
3. Too Much Space, Must TRIM Cells
We’ve all had a spreadsheet that made us want to cry because we had to spend hours in the day getting rid of a wide range of excess spaces. You will find that you get excess space when you do a lot of copying and pasting onto your Google Sheets. It can’t be helped. Entering data is a painstaking task and that’s the easiest way to ensure accuracy sometimes.
Still, it can cause formatting anxiety because you often wind up with a lot of extra space in the Sheet and you have to spend half as long removing it. Instead, use the TRIM() function. This will decrease the amount of space and will ensure you have only one or two spaces between your data sets.
Simply enter the formula “=Trim (cell range)” without the quotation marks, and you will trim your Google Sheets.
4. The IF Function is Only Logical
The IF function in Google Sheets allows you to enter a formula to create a logical response that results in either a True or False answer.
This formula in Google Sheets is about helping you to tidy up a spreadsheet by using data that you already have. It is a kind of conditional computation, where a True or False answer is yielded if one data set is valid or accurate.
You can delineate what the outcome is by either yes or no results as well, depending on how you write the formula. In more advanced formulas, you can count the Trues and Falses.
5. Translate in Google Sheets
This is a mind-blowing formula that allows you to translate in Google Sheets using a formula. The formula is “=GoogleTranslate(cell range)” in Google Sheets. You can do this as much as you want in one Sheet.
You can translate many columns of one phrase, or translate just one. You can take one phrase and translate it into many different languages. There are numerous ways you can use the translate formula in one Google Sheet, and it is becoming handier in this global world.
Relax More With Google Sheets
When you are looking to work smarter and have lower anxiety at work, Google Sheets and its many formulas are one answer. It is why this spreadsheet was invented. Keep these five formulas on a post-it on your desk. You’ll feel much less stress the next time someone mentions you spend some time on a spreadsheet to organize your life or your business.