◆ Formulas II · drill · Spreadsheet Formulas & Data track
Review pass — find what’s broken
a hardcode in a formula row is invisible by eye — it is black, it is comma-formatted, and only Constants lights it.
A divisional operating review came back from the FY-close pack with four things wrong in it, and the check line under the block is already saying so. One division’s Total covers four of the five years. Two cells in the EBIT row are typed numbers where formulas should be — they are black and comma-formatted like everything around them, so Go To Special → Constants is how you find them. And one EBIT margin divides by another year’s revenue. Fix all four, then sign the review off.
The shortcuts in this drill
F5fn F5 on macGo To — jump anywhere by reference
Go To jumps to any reference on the tab — long-distance travel on big pages.
F2⌃U · fn F2 on macEdit the active cell (cursor at the end)
Edit-in-place lights up every cell a formula touches — the first move when a number looks wrong.
Shift+↓⇧↓ on macExtend selection one cell
Shift+→⇧→ on macExtend selection one cell
Nudge a selection one cell at a time when the block you need doesn’t end at a data edge.
Ctrl+R⌘R on macFill right from the cell to the left
Same as fill down, but across — one quarter’s formula becomes the whole year in two keystrokes.
The optimal line
the par-setting sequence, straight through:
F5 → s → o lights every typed number · the short Total — F2, extend the range · the EBIT block — one good year, ctrl+r across · the crossed margin — F2, repoint it · B19 → OK · ctrl+s
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