The function screen tip is a small window that appears when you click into a function in the formula bar. Although this window looks quite simple, it is actually a very useful tool when editing and debugging Excel formulas.
When the function screen tip is visible, you can use it to precisely navigate the function arguments in a formula. The window is context-sensitive and its contents depend on the function the cursor resides in. As you move the cursor through a formula, the currently active argument is bolded. If the cursor is moved to a different function in the same formula, the arguments for that function are displayed.
If you click directly on the argument name, the text that makes up that argument will be selected. This is a powerful way to copy and paste into a formula without bringing in extra characters, or accidentally truncating an important character.
Finally, if the function screen tip window is in your way, you can move it to a new location using the four headed arrow.
A helper column is a non-technical term to describe a column added to a set of data to help simplify a complex formula or an operation that would be otherwise difficult. The concept is a little abstract, so here are three examples:
You can use VLOOKUP to perform a lookup with multiple criteria by adding a helper column to the data. In the example above, a helper column is used to concatenate first and last names, so that VLOOKUP can be used to find departments using both names. Click for details on this formula .
You can use a helper column with a formula that returns a value like TRUE for rows that meet specific conditions, then use go to special and delete only those rows. Watch this video to see a “shortcut recipe” to remove specific rows using this technique. The recipe using formulas starts at about 6:00 in the video.
You can use a helper column for sorting. For example, you could add values to a helper column to sort a table in ways not easy or possible with the original set of data. You can also use a helper column to preserve and restore the original sort order.
