Google Sheets is an incredible tool for business owners. From equations to macros, it might feel confusing to dive into advanced Google Sheets tips and tricks.
Many people love and choose Google Sheets over Microsoft Excel for its accessibility, transportability, and user-friendly interface. Google Sheets makes team collaboration easy, and you’ll never need to worry about saving your spreadsheet again. However, between Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel, over 2 billion people in the world are using spreadsheets every month.
A few tips and tricks can enhance the usefulness of Google Sheets completely for free. With these hacks, you’ll be able to do more in Google Sheets, stay organized and productive, and get more done in less time.
4 Google Sheets Tips and Tricks
1. Freeze Columns and Rows
Context is important, and it can get confusing to constantly scroll all the way to the left or up to find row and column titles. You don’t want to put information in the wrong cell, so freezing columns and rows can help you stay organized.
To freeze cells on your desktop, select the columns or rows you want to freeze, right-click, select “View more cell actions,” and then hit “Freeze.” Now, your headings will move with you across the spreadsheet.
2. Create Filters
You might have a ton of data that you need to filter into different views. For example, if you’re keeping track of event registrations, you might want to filter by job title, location, or sign-up destination. Maybe you want to sort customer data by the product they purchased. Create unique views in Google Sheets to parse out information.
To create these filters, head to Data —> Filter Views —> and Create a New Filter View. Adjust the filter by sorting, color, condition, or value. Now, you’ll be able to see limited information based on specific parameters.
3. Create Custom Keyboard Shortcuts
If you’re in Google Sheets a lot, you probably have tasks you’re doing over and over again. Custom keyboard shortcuts can help you save time by consolidating multiple steps into a few clicks. Google Sheets offers a ton of pre-built shortcuts for formatting, layout, and simple text editing. These shortcuts can help you easily bold, italicize, underline, or move text around the page.
To create custom keyboard shortcuts, you’ll have to use macros, which might sound difficult, but it’s fairly straightforward. Open the Extensions drop-down menu, select “Macros,” and then select “Record Macros.” Then, work as if you were doing the action, and the macro will record your steps. When you’re done recording, quick save, and you’ll be able to run that macro in the future to save time on that repetitive task.
You can use this for a multi-step process, like creating a shipping address, organizing invoices, or updating data.
4. Export Emails to Sheets with an Email Parser
Another way to make Google Sheets work harder for you is to use an email parser. They can help you:
- Backup emails
- Export emails to sheets
- Or parse emails into an organized Sheet triggered by specific keywords
- For example: any characters after keywords like “Sub-total”
Below is a helpful video that shows how an email parser works.
This email parser app allows you to export important information buried in your email to Google Sheets, allowing you to see organized records, parse through event information, manage inventory, keep track of shipping info, export customer or lead lists, and more. Instead of digging through the treasure trove of information buried in your email inbox, create comprehensive, organized views of all your important business information.
This Google Chrome extension is an email parser editor that extracts important info from an email body without bringing in all these extraneous words. These emails can be parsed into Google Sheets. You can also create a Gmail label and set up auto rules to export emails whenever a message fits that label.
Email Parser Best Practices
Without a tool like this, bringing your emails to Sheets is a time-consuming, tedious practice that requires hours of manual work and updating. Use email parsing best practices and tips to extract the most important information and do more with it.
Save time and automate this manual process with cloudHQ’s Export Emails to Google Sheets, an app for business owners and professionals alike looking to streamline and increase productivity.
If you’re looking for more Google Sheets tips and tricks, there’s a part 2, follow up to this article here.