Managing budgets is often crucial at this time of year, be they organisational or personal. Here are five ways to save time using Excel:

1 Insert a sequence of data (eg, calendar months). Insert the first one, then drag the right-hand bottom corner of the cell across the rest of the row/column and the cells will automatically be populated.

2 Annotate a cell. Right-click on the cell, select Insert Comment and type your comments in the box. To hide comments, go to the View menu and pick the Comments option. Make sure when sending to an external source that you delete (not just hide) any comments they should not see.

3 If an Excel table is too big when pasted into your Word document. To make the table fit neatly, select the entire table, click the right mouse button and select AutoFit to Window. If it’s still too large, press Ctrl+Shift+< to reduce it furtherand repeat until it fits

4 Watch Window. Need to watch a cell value which is off the screen, eg total sales? Go to View/Toolbars/Watch Window. In the spreadsheet, click on the cell you want to watch, click Add Watch in the Watch Window dialogue box and then click Add again to confirm.

5 Data validation. Important to make sure data entered in cells is always consistent, eg, name spelt the same from a selected list of sales regions? Mark the cells concerned, then pick Validation from the Data menu. From the Allow drop-down menu, pick List, then enter the list of valid items, separated by a comma, into the Source field. Click OK once done. Now, when you click on one of the cells, a drop-down arrow will appear. Click on this and you can select the appropriate value to input. Longer lists of valid items can be kept elsewhere in the spreadsheet and, rather than type the items in the Source field, you can enter a formula or range name that refers to the cells containing the list.

Still need help? Press F1 and type in your question. For book lovers there is How to Do Everything With Microsoft Office Excel 2003 by Guy Hart-Davis.

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