Paste Special Multiplier

Cast your mind... It’s the last Friday of your fiscal quarter and you have generated the Sales forecast budget for the president of the company. Just when you’re feeling good and relaxed (5 minutes before the numbers are displayed on a projector for all to see) your arch office enemy smugly tells you that the numbers you were given were the old ones. The new ones are 5% higher!

He proceeds to start measuring your desk as he is sure you will be fired and he will take over your job (and prestigious salary).

No need to panic, you just need to break out the mad crazy Excel skills that everyone in your office have grown to depend upon.

Here is some sample data that we can use for our example. It has a category and total sales. For our example we will need to change all these values by increasing them by 5%.

Equipment	Sales Total
Baseball	603.00
Basketball	485.00
Fishing	638.00
Golf	348.00
Hockey	338.00
Tennis	526.00
Grand Total	2,938.00

Start by placing 1.05 into any blank cell.

Equipment	Sales Total
Baseball	603.00	1.05
Basketball	485.00
Fishing	638.00
Golf	348.00
Hockey	338.00
Tennis	526.00
Grand Total	2,938.00

Now copy the value in that cell by Edit, Copy or press Ctrl and C. 

Next Select all the values that you need to change (our Sales Total data). The data will highlight grey.

Equipment	Sales Total
Baseball	603.00	1.05
Basketball	485.00
Fishing	638.00
Golf	348.00
Hockey	338.00
Tennis	526.00
Grand Total	2,938.00

Now select Edit, Paste Special to bring up the Past Special dialog box. Select Multiply and click the OK button.

Instantly the numbers increase by the 5%.

Equipment	Sales Total
Baseball	633.15
Basketball	509.25
Fishing	669.90
Golf	365.40
Hockey	354.90
Tennis	552.30
Grand Total	3,084.90

The day saved, you once again are the Excel hero.

You are not limited by multiplication. Notice that in the Paste Special dialog box, you have the options to add, subtract, multiply and divide.  

Break out this useful skill in crunch time and WOW your clients.