Author: Zeynep

Data manipulation is one of the most powerful abilities of Excel. Flash Fill is a tool in Excel that enables you to manipulate data in a cell according to your needs.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to switch first and last names in Excel with the help of Flash Fill.

Switch First and Last Name

Now we will walk through the steps of switching the first and last names in Excel, and we will use Flash Fill for this purpose.

Flash Fill works as follows: you define a new pattern, and Flash Fill imitates this pattern for all other cells. In this case, the pattern that we will create is going to be “LastName, FirstName”.

Step 1: Go to a cell that contains a full name. In the cell right next to it, write the pattern you want in a reverse fashion: “LastName, FirstName”.

Be careful that the first and last names are written correctly, just like the original cell.

Step 2: Press Enter on your keyboard to go to the cell below, or click on the cell below the new pattern.

Step 3: In the Home tab, click on the Fill icon in the Editing part in the Excel ribbon, and then click on Flash Fill.

This will automatically fill out all cells next to a full name, and your names will successfully be switched:

Using this method, you can use any pattern that includes a first name and a last name. For example, you can also abbreviate a first name:

As long as you provide a new name format, Flash Fill will automatically learn the pattern and apply it to other cells. It’s like magic, right?

This extremely easy method can enable you to perform all kinds of text manipulation. Learning to use Flash Fill is an excellent skill. Nice job!

You may want to check how to separate or combine first and last names in Excel and then sort by last name in Excel.

Excel is a great way to store, compute, and sort information; however, there may be times when you want to save the tables in Excel as images for use on the web, brand print material, or for training.

Use the Copy Feature in Excel to Save an Excel Table as an Image

1. Highlight the table that you want to save as an image.

2. Click the down arrow next to the Copy button in the Clipboard group and click the “Copy as Picture…” selection.

3. Open up your favorite image editor. You can use Paint™, Paint 3D™, Photoshop™,  GIMP™, or Photos™ on Mac™. For this tutorial, we will use Paint™.

4. Click the Paste option in Paint, and the image appears on the canvas.

5. Resize the canvas by moving the small white rectangles on the canvas with the mouse so that they match the size of the picture.

6. Edit the image as needed and save the file.

Use the Print Screen Button to Save an Excel Table as an Image

1. Open the worksheet you wish to save as an image and press the Print Screen (PrtScr) button on your keyboard.

2. Open a new canvas in your image editing software, and press CTRL + V or CMD + V if you use a Mac.

3. The screenshot will appear on the canvas and will need editing to isolate the Excel table from the complete image.

Note: if your keyboard does not have a Print Screen button, Windows users can use the Fn + Windows Logo Key + Space Bar combination to take a screenshot. Mac users can take a screenshot with CMD + Shift + 3 together.

Use Shortcut Keys to Save an Excel Table as an Image 

1. Once your worksheet is open in Excel, press CTRL + C or CMD + V for a Mac to store the picture in the computer’s memory.

2. Open your image software and press CTRL + V or CMD + V on a Mac to paste the picture on the blank canvas.

3. Edit the picture to fit your needs.

Conclusion

Now you have discovered the different methods for saving an Excel table as an image. Explore the many other topics on our blog to continue increasing your knowledge of Excel.

You can also save the data or workbook without formulas if you want another option of saving the Excel table.

Have you ever imported data to Excel from an external source with many unwanted hyperlinks that came along?

Also, you might have come across multiple undesired hyperlinks automatically generated by Excel for emails and URLs inserted into a workbook.

Unwanted hyperlinks can cause undue trouble. Every time you select a cell containing a hyperlink, excel would automatically redirect you to the destination link.

Hyperlinks that are not needed can be removed from Excel with sheer ease.

Continue reading to know how you can instantly remove hyperlinks in Excel.

Remove Hyperlink in Excel

To better learn the easy two-step process of removing hyperlinks from selected cells in Excel, let’s stipulate an example below.

Remove hyperlinks from selected cells

The data set below collates different links containing information relevant to various topics. As soon as the links are input, Excel recognizes them as hyperlinks and formats them into blue color and underlines them.

To remove the hyperlinks from only some selected cells, here are the steps that you need to follow.

Step 1:

Select the cells containing the hyperlinks that you want to be removed.

Step 2:

Right-click by keeping the cursor on the selected cells to see the pop-up menu as below.

From the pop-up menu that opens up, select the option, ‘Remove Hyperlinks’.

Excel removes hyperlinks from the selected cells as evident below.

That is it. Removing hyperlinks from Excel is only that easy.

However, what if you have an Excel file that is densely packed with hyperlinks? Is it not hectic to select each cell to remove the hyperlink therefrom? It definitely is. Here is a shortcut that may help you with it.

Remove all hyperlinks together 

Continuing with the same example stipulated above, to remove hyperlinks from the entire spreadsheet at the same time, follow the steps below.

Step 1:

Press ‘Ctrl+A’. This is the shortcut to select all the contents of an active sheet.

Step 2:

Right-click against the selected cells to have the pop-up menu opened. Opt for ‘Remove Hyperlinks’ as follows.

Excel removes hyperlinks from the entire spreadsheet as follows.

Pro Tip: Prevention of Automatic Navigation to the Destination Link

As soon as you select a cell that contains a hyperlink, you will be navigated to the destination link. Or in case of an email address, Excel would present you with the option to send an email to the subject address.

If Excel redirects you to the destination link automatically upon selecting a cell, you may turn it off as follows.

File > Options > Advanced > Editing options

Check the option for 'Use CTRL + Click to follow hyperlink'. Once this is done, Excel would present you with the option to press ‘Ctrl’ to follow a link. Merely selecting a cell in Excel wouldn’t navigate you to the destination page.

Suggested Tutorial: How to Extract URL from Hyperlinks in Excel

Put Off Automatic Hyperlinks in Excel

It is often the case that you’ve to work with Excel files containing excessive Hyperlinks. For example, the Human Resource department of a Company may have to maintain a record for all of its employees, including their names, numbers, and email addresses.

Whenever fed into Excel, email addresses are recognized by Excel as hyperlinks. If you don’t want the file to contain hyperlinks, such settings of Excel might prove problematic. This is because every time you feed the details of a new employee into the Excel sheet, Excel would automatically turn the email address into a hyperlink.

Removing each hyperlink time and time again is time-consuming and frustrating. To prevent Excel from generating hyperlinks automatically, you can disable the same from the settings. Here’s how you can do it.

Step 1:

Go to File > Options as follows.

Step 2:

Selecting options would open up a window of Excel options as follows.

From the said window, choose Proofing > AutoCorrect Options as highlighted above. This would open up a pop-up window.

Choose ‘AutoFormat as you type’ and uncheck the box for ‘Internet and network paths with hyperlinks’ as highlighted below.

This will turn off the automatic hyperlinking within Excel. Now, as you type or Copy / Paste links in Excel, those would remain as text, and Excel would not automatically turn them into Hyperlinks.

Pro tip: This setting will be applied to the entire Excel application. Any workbook that you create or edit with Excel will have the same settings applied.

However, after these settings are applied, you can still add hyperlinks to one or more cells by right-clicking on the desired cell. From the pop-up menu that then opens up, select ‘Link’. This would open up a dialogue box where you can insert the destination link to be added as hyperlink to that cell.

Conclusion:

Hyperlinks make an intelligent feature of Excel. However, undesired hyperlinks are often a nuisance. Hope this article helped you learn all that you needed to know how to remove hyperlinks in Excel.

Before anything, what is a square root symbol? Let me quickly take you back to high school mathematics. Here’s what the square root symbol looks like.

We often need this symbol in your spreadsheets for a variety of tasks. Some of the time to compose a formula, write down an expression, and so much more.

How do you add that in Excel? There are multiple ways how you can do that. Let me take you through all of them in the article below.

Also if you wonder how to add other symbols, you can check our other articles:

Copy/Paste the Square Root Symbol in Excel

Out of many ways to add the square root symbol in Excel, the first and the easiest is to copy it from below simply.

1. Select this square root symbol √.
2. Right-click on it > Click on Copy.
3. Go to the relevant cell in your Excel sheet.
4. Double-click on the cell to activate it.

5. Right-click to launch the Paste Special Options.
6. Click on Paste as shown below.

And there you go.

Ta-da! The symbol is pasted to your Excel sheet. Make as many copies of the same as desired, and you’re all set.

However, this method is only advisable if you only need to add one (or a very few) square root symbols to your sheet. If you need them more than that, try the other methods discussed below.

Insert Square Root Symbol Using Symbol Option

The square root is recognized as a symbol by Excel and is included in the symbols library of Excel. Let’s find it out together.

1. Activate the cell where you want the square root symbol inserted.
2. Go to the Insert Tab > Symbols as shown below.

This will launch the Symbol dialog box as follows.

3. Set the Font to normal text (as shown below).
4. Set the Subset to Mathematical Operators (as shown below).

From the signs that appear, select the “Square Root” symbol.

5. Click on Insert.

And there, you have it added to your sheet.

The next time you need to add it, it will be saved in the recently used symbols, so the whole process gets quicker.

Pretty cool, right?

Insert the Square Root Symbol Using the UNICHAR Function

Another method you can use to add the square root symbol to an Excel sheet is by using the UNICHAR function. How? Let’s see that below.

TIP!

The UNICHAR function works with ASCII codes (which are numerical values). For each of these codes, the UNICHAR function returns a unique code. 

Inserting the square root symbol using the UNICHAR function is simple if you know the required ASCII code. And that code number is 8730. Let’s now see how to use it to insert the square root symbol in Excel.

1. Activate the cell where you want the square root symbol inserted.
2. Begin writing the UNICHAR function as follows:

= UNICHAR (

3. Write in the code 8730 as follows:

= UNICHAR (8730)

4. Hit Enter to see the results below.

See that?

However, there’s one problem with the UNICHAR function. It does add the square root symbol, but if you want to use it with other characters, you will have to concatenate it with them.

Like below.

To help this, you can copy and paste the square root symbol as a simple value. Here’s how to do it.

5. Copy the formula.
6. Go to another cell and right-click to launch the Paste Special options.
7. Paste it as Values.

Check out the formula bar to see that the UNICHAR formula has gone away. What’s left behind is a simple square root symbol.

Now you can easily use it around your spreadsheet without worrying about the UNICHAR formula running behind it. How cool is that?

Insert the Square Root Symbol Using a Keyboard Shortcut

It’s always easier to simply use your keyboard to type any character, and the square root symbol is no exception.

Although you will not find the square root symbol on your keyboard, you can still type it using the following keyboard shortcut.

What is that? The Alt key + 2 + 5 + 1.

All of these 4 keys are to be typed in succession, i.e., one after the other.

TIP!

Here’s something very important that you must know about using this keyboard shortcut. This keyboard shortcut will only work with a numeric keypad.

So if your keyboard (or laptop) doesn't have a numeric keypad, this keyboard shortcut would not work with the other number keys on your keyboard. In this case, you'd have to use any of the methods discussed above.

Let us now quickly go through the steps to be followed to insert the square root symbol using this shortcut.

1. Activate the cell where you want the square root symbol inserted.
2. Press the following keys on your keyboard in sequential order.

Alt key + 2 + 5 + 1

And that’s it. You have it inserted in the selected cell.

Change the Format of Values to Add the Square Root Symbol

This method comes last because it works differently than the other methods on this list.

Under this format, we only change the format of the values in our spreadsheet to prefix them with a square root symbol. So, in essence, you don’t add the character to your sheet. But the values in your sheet are formatted as such to exhibit it.

Let’s change the format of the values in the image below to see how we can do it.

Here are the steps to be followed.

1. Select all the cells where the square root symbol is to be added.

2. Go to the Home tab > Number > the small arrow button to launch the Format Cells dialog box.

3. From the Format Cells dialog box, go to the Number Tab.
4. Go to “Custom” from the pane on the left.
5. Add the square root symbol ( √ ) before the category General.

TIP!

You can simply copy it from here ( √ ) and paste it there. Or, if you have a numerical keypad, use the Alt key + 251 shortcuts to add one instantly.

6. Click on Okay. A square root symbol will be added before every number on the list.

However, these numbers are only formatted to include a square root symbol. A square root symbol doesn’t actually exist in the cell.

This is evident from the Formula bar.

Hence, this method is only suitable if you want the square root symbol for presentation purposes.

Conclusion

In this guide, we explored different ways of inserting the Square root symbol in Excel. We saw the technique of using UNICHAR function, we saw how to use formatting to insert the symbol, and we also tried some cool keyboard shortcuts.

You can use any of the above explained methods to insert Square root in Excel. It might take you some practice before you master the art, but once you do, it will seem easier than falling off a log.

Our favorite method is using the UNICHAR function to add the symbol – have you found yours? If not, then what are you waiting for? Find the best suited method for your purpose now!