August 15, 2011
If you want to do calculations with Excel, you need to write formulas, right? Wrong! With Excel’s Paste Special feature, you can perform a variety of basic math functions without writing a single formula!
Suppose you want to increase every value on your list by 5%. You could write a formula to do this and then apply it to every cell involved, or you could do it the easy way, like this:
- Enter 1.05 in any blank cell. (In this example, 1.05 will be the multiplier that will increase the numbers in your range.)
- Now, select the cell that you just put 1.05 in, and then Copy (CTRL+C).
- Select the range of cells to be changed, right click on this range, and choose Paste Special.
- A dialog box opens, and from it you can select the math operation you want to be applied, in this case “Multiply”.
- Click Ok.
- Instantly your values are all changed! Now, just delete the cell that contains your multiplier.