Hi Fellow Excel Addict,

How are you progressing on your way to become a "local spreadsheet expert"? You don't have to know everything, but by learning some of the most commonly used tips and shortcuts, you can easily know more that the vast majority of Excel users.

I've heard from some of my readers who are already finding other co-workers coming to them for help. That's the way it started with me and I got kind of addicted to it. I'm still just as addicted to Excel now as I was 12 years ago. There's always something new to learn no matter how long you have been using it. I hope you feel the same way.

On another unrelated topic, I bought my first digital camera this week (a Canon A75). Take a look at a couple of pictures I took yesterday about 1 km from my house. Go to http://www.theexceladdict.com/photos

Until next week, be safe and keep Excelling,
Francis J Hayes (The Excel Addict)

P.S. VERY IMPORTANT Please remember to include "TheExcelAddict" in the Subject line of any email you send me. This will help it stand out in the flood of junk email I have been receiving lately.

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To quickly find the number of characters in a cell, enter this formula in another cell.

=LEN(A1)      Substitute your cell for A1.

Jim Rohn's Weekly E-Zine is a free weekly publication dedicated to providing valuable insights and information that can help empower and improve both your business and personal life. Find out more at http://www.TheExcelAddict.com/rd/jimrohn.htm.

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All you have to do each month is click here to recommend my newsletter and website to a friend. For each person that you refer, your name will go into the draw. The more Excel friends you refer, the more chances you have of winning, but please, recommend it only to people you know and who are Microsoft Excel users.

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Most Excel users have heard of and seen IF functions used in worksheets, but a large number of these users find the IF function confusing.

The IF function is one of the most used worksheet functions in Excel and, contrary to what you may think, the IF function is pretty easy to understand. It is so versatile that, once you learn how to use it, you will think of many, many places to use it. It will open up many new opportunities for you as you develop your workbooks.

The purpose of the IF function is to put one of two values in a cell based upon a condition.

There are four parts to the IF function.

     =IF(Condition, ValueIfTrue, ValueIfFalse)

1. The function name
2. The condition to test (must evaluate to either TRUE or FALSE)
3. The value to put in the cell if the condition evaluates to TRUE
4. The value to put in the cell if the condition evaluates to FALSE

In plain English the function says, If the condition is True, put the value of ValueIfTrue in the cell, otherwise put the value of ValueIfFalse in the cell.

Let's look at an easy-to-understand example.

Column A contains student names. Column B contains student grades. In column C we will add a formula that will tell if the student passed or failed.

Here's the formula we would use: =IF(B2<50,"Failed", "Passed")

If the grade in cell B2 is less than 50, put the word Failed in cell C2, otherwise put the word Passed in cell C2.

This is just a basic explanation of the IF function. IF is a very powerful function that every Excel user should have at their disposal. In future tips we will look further at some other more advanced uses of the IF function.

There are tens of millions of other Microsoft Excel users all over the world. The vast majority of them have a very limited knowledge of Excel's capabilities. My goal is to share this information with everyone I possibly can and help them to benefit from Excel's amazing capabilities.

Please help me spread the word about my newsletter. If you know other Excel users, please tell them about "Spreadsheet Tips From An Excel Addict". I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

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VERY IMPORTANT: Please refer only people you know personally, who use Microsoft Excel and would benefit from this newsletter.

For years I have been dragging and dropping files in Windows Explorer. Occasionally I will accidentally drop a file in the middle of the drag operation and not know which folder I dropped it in. (Solution: Click Edit, Undo) Sometimes, in the middle of the drag, I will change my mind. (Solution: Press the ESC button before releasing the mouse button).

Recently I've been trying to break this habit by using the right mouse button instead. Using the right mouse button for dragging and dropping files is a much safer procedure because you are given a menu of options to choose from. However, left dragging is faster if you are familiar with Windows' default behaviors and if you don't make mistakes. Maybe that's why I can't break the habit.