Hit the F5 Key on your Keyboard within an Excel Spreadsheet and click the Special... button to show the tool in the below screenshots.
The Special... key is a powerful search and identification tool within Excel. To set the scene, when building a financial model, one must know which cells contain formulas and which cells contain hard coded data (numbers punched in manually). The creator of the model will not want new users to overtype the cells that contain formulas with hard coded numbers, otherwise formulas will be lost. To avoid this, the financial modeller will use a colour coding system, whereby all "entry" cells are filled in yellow and have blue coloured text, and all cells that contain formulas, and therefore are not to be overtyped, are left with a black font and clear cell colouring.
The screenshot shows an example of a completed DCF model. However, there lies one problem for the creator of this model, in that he or she cannot quickly remember which cells contain formulas and which are hard coded.
Showing posts with label The F5 Key. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The F5 Key. Show all posts
Saturday, 16 January 2010
SPREADSHEET TIPS & TRICKS: The F5 Key (Part 1 of 2)
What does the F5 key do?
The F5 key brings up the Go To... dialogue box. This is useful for financial modellers who like to use named cells or cell ranges. It is a quick way to bring up a list of all named cells or cell ranges within Excel files. Equally if one is auditing another's spreadsheet and would like to check what named cells or cell ranges the original modeller has used, if any, then the F5 key offers a quick way to do so.
In the pictoral example, below, the modeller has many cell ranges and the F5 key is an easy way to view which names have been allocated to which cells or cell ranges. If the modeller has forgotten which cells each range refers to, they can simply double click an item on the list and Excel will highlight the relevant cell on the relevant tab within the Excel file.
The F5 key brings up the Go To... dialogue box. This is useful for financial modellers who like to use named cells or cell ranges. It is a quick way to bring up a list of all named cells or cell ranges within Excel files. Equally if one is auditing another's spreadsheet and would like to check what named cells or cell ranges the original modeller has used, if any, then the F5 key offers a quick way to do so.
In the pictoral example, below, the modeller has many cell ranges and the F5 key is an easy way to view which names have been allocated to which cells or cell ranges. If the modeller has forgotten which cells each range refers to, they can simply double click an item on the list and Excel will highlight the relevant cell on the relevant tab within the Excel file.
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