Taming Large Excel Spreadsheets

Author: David H. Ringstrom

In this course, author and Excel expert David H. Ringstrom, CPA, will guide participants through various techniques to enhance their efficiency and productivity in Excel. Topics covered include viewing a workbook on two monitors for improved multitasking, viewing two worksheets on one monitor for easy comparison and utilizing Zoom to Selection for focused analysis. You'll also learn how to maximize screen real estate with the buried Full Screen mode, utilizing the Split feature for simultaneous viewing and editing two or more areas of a worksheet. Other techniques include efficiently grouping and ungrouping rows and columns, leveraging the Watch Window for monitoring key data, using hyperlinks as a navigation aid for quick access to relevant information, and utilizing the Navigation task pane in Excel for Microsoft 365 for streamlined navigation and organization.

David is the author of “Microsoft Excel 365 for Dummies”, “Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures”, and has written or co-authored six other books. He demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in the subscription-based Excel for Microsoft 365. David draws your attention to any differences in Excel 2021, 2019 or 2016 during the course and in his detailed handouts. The handouts include an Excel workbook with most of the examples he uses during his demonstrations.

Excel for Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based product that receives periodic feature updates. Conversely, perpetually licensed versions have year numbers in their names and do not receive any feature updates.

Publication Date: September 2025

Designed For
Professionals seeking to use Microsoft Excel more effectively.

Topics Covered

• Using the Watch Window to easily monitor the ramifications of even minor changes to your workbooks
• Utilizing the New Window and Arrange Windows commands to view two different worksheets simultaneously
• Making the same edits on multiple worksheets at once by grouping worksheets
• Minimizing the file size of large workbooks by way of the Excel Binary Workbook format
• Utilizing the Split Worksheet feature properly to lock certain rows at the bottom of the Excel window
• Running a macro within any workbook to display all sheets at once
• Creating custom views that will enable you to display all worksheets in a workbook at once as well as hide/display selected worksheets
• Creating a macro, you can use in any workbook in order to display all sheets at once
• Navigating large workbooks with ease by way of a hidden menu as well as keyboard shortcuts
• Navigating purposefully through worksheets by way of clickable hyperlinks
• Using the SUM function to drill through two or more worksheets
• Learning how to use a single line of programming code to unhide all worksheets within a workbook

Learning Objectives

• State which ribbon tab (menu) contains the Navigation task pane command
• Explain the purpose of the Split command
• Identify the ribbon tab where the Custom Views command resides
• Identify the mouse action that activates a hyperlink in Excel
• Identify on which ribbon tab the New Window command appears on
• Identify the keystroke that exits Full Screen mode once you've added the command to your Quick Access Toolbar

Level
Basic

Instructional Method
Self-Study

NASBA Field of Study
Specialized Knowledge and Applications (2 hours)

Program Prerequisites
None

Advance Preparation
None