It gets a bit frustrating, when working with large spreadsheets, if every time you go to read the data in a specific cell the headings at the top of the page or down the side of the sheet disappear. You are left wondering if you are looking at the right data.

If you’re like me, you want to make certain that you are looking in the right spot, so you scroll back and forth trying to read first the heading and then the data, heading then the data, until you’re almost sure you have it right.

To avoid this back and forth waste of time, use Excel's “freeze panes” feature. Freeze panes allows you to lock specific rows and columns so that they will always be visible on screen no matter how far you scroll to the right or down. It's easy to do and this short article on Excel 2007 Freeze Panes will have you locking down rows and columns in no time.

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Since entering data into a spreadsheet is probably the most commonly performed operation in Excel, Microsoft has included a number of tools and features that make it easier to carry out this task.

One of these, and one that can save you some time if you have to enter the same data repeatedly, is the drop down list.

A drop down list gives you a set number of entries to choose from when entering data. Not only can this speed up data entry, but it can also prevent people from misspelling entries or even from entering the wrong data altogether.

To find out how easy it is to use this feature, read the article on Creating a Drop Down List in Excel 2007.

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Sometimes when data is imported or copied into an Excel spreadsheet numbers get converted to labels.

This means that they cannot be used in formulas or functions.

To change them back into values, so that they can be used in calculations, use the VALUE function.

To find out the details of using this function, read the article on the Excel 2007 VALUE Function.

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Another function, similar to the PROPER function that can be used to change the case of data is the UPPER function. Case refers to the use of capital (upper case) and small letters (lower case) in a word or words.

The UPPER function, as the name suggest, will change selected text to all capital letters. This function is most often used on data that has been imported or copied into a spreadsheet.

To find out the details of using this function read the article on the Excel 2007 UPPER Function.

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