Microsoft Excel is the de facto choice for businesses and professionals. We rely on it for everything from simple calculations to complex data analysis, yet many of us remain trapped in a cycle of manual data entry and repetitive tasks. Dealing with endless rows, columns, and formulas shouldn’t have to be a constant struggle. Here is where Excel automation comes into play to minimize errors, speed up your workflow, and unlock its true potential.

In this post, we will go over game-changing automation techniques to reclaim those precious hours and reach a whole new level of efficiency in Excel.

6 Automate tasks with macros in Excel

Macros are the most common way to automate your Excel workbook. Instead of repeating the same tasks, you can record a macro of all steps and execute tedious commands with a single click only. The system records all the mouse clicks and keyboard inputs, so we recommend planning your steps in advance to reduce any errors during live recording.

1. Open any Excel workbook. Select View at the top and expand Macros.
2. Select Record Macro.
3. Enter the Macro name for better recognition, assign a shortcut key if required, and store your macro in the current workbook or across your personal workbook (this lets you use macros across all your Excel spreadsheets).
4. Perform and record complex Excel tasks, then select Stop Recording under the same Macros menu.

From now on, whenever you want to execute the same task, simply use the keyboard shortcut or run the macro from the View Macros menu. We highly recommend creating macros for your repetitive tasks to boost productivity, improve consistency, and eliminate manual errors.

5 Use Excel’s Automate tab

If you are a power user, explore Microsoft VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) to open up a host of automation possibilities. You can write custom macros that essentially act as mini-programs within Excel to automate complex tasks and manipulate data. It unlocks a level of automation far beyond what’s achievable with built-in features. VBA requires some programming knowledge, and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

1. Open your Excel workbook and navigate to the Automate tab.
2. You can glance over several existing scripts, such as removing hyperlinks, counting empty rows, freezing selection, and more. Select New Script.
3. It opens a code editor on the sidebar.
4. Write down a script and click Run to check it in action.

You can create as many scripts as you want and take your Excel automation to the next level. It’s entirely up to your programming knowledge and preferences.

At any point, you can open the All Scripts menu, glance over your recorded scripts, and select the three-dot menu beside them to run, edit, rename, copy, or delete.

4 Use conditional formatting

Excel’s conditional formatting is like having a superpower for your spreadsheets. You can automatically apply formatting to cells based on the rules you define. For example, you can use conditional formatting to highlight the top 10% of sales figures in a table.

For example, say we have a yearly sales figure for every employee. Now, we want to highlight sales figures that are below expectations. Let's go through the steps below.

1. Open an Excel workbook and expand Conditional Formatting from the Home tab.
2. Expand Highlight Cells Rules and select Less than.
3. Type 80000 (as we want to highlight all the sales figures below $80,000) and pick a format (the default is set to Light Red Fill with Dark Red Text).
4. You can customize it with a specific format, too. Select OK and check conditional formatting in action.

The possibilities are endless here. You can use color scales to view upcoming deadlines, with red for overdue tasks and green for tasks that are on track.

3 Explore dynamic visualization in Excel

While there are several ways to enable dynamic visualization in Excel, tables remain the easiest way to do the job. You can turn any database into a table and create different charts to understand the pattern over time. The biggest benefit is the background automation. When you add new data, or edit existing figures, Excel automatically refreshes the associated charts.

We have a dedicated guide on how to bring your Excel data to life with dynamic visualization. Make sure to refer to it to get the best out of your boring datasets.

2 Use Excel add-ins to automate tedious tasks

If the default Excel automation tools are not sufficient for you, head to the add-ins store to explore third-party tools. Power Automate is one such plugin that creates automated workflows between your favorite apps and services to sync files, receive alerts, collect data, and more. It works with Microsoft services like SharePoint, Office 365, Planner, and even X, Trello, and MailChimp.

There is no shortage of add-ins for Microsoft Excel. Check out our separate guide to find our top picks.

1 Use Microsoft Copilot

If you have a Copilot Pro plan (priced at $20 per month), Microsoft unlocks Copilot assistant across all office apps, including Excel. You can use text prompts to apply formatting, get data insights, generate VBA code, and understand your database in no time. Let’s check it out in action.

1. Open an Excel workbook and launch Copilot from the top-right corner.
2. We want to highlight how the MacBook sales have done. Type Highlight all cells with MacBook, and press Enter.
3. Copilot suggests a default formatting style with yellow fill color and black text. Click Apply.
4. Now, we want to calculate the total units sold where profit has exceeded $7000. Ask Copilot to do the same and receive an answer in no time.
5. Copilot generates a formula and displays the number of units that match our criteria.

Save precious hours each week

Remember, Excel automation isn’t just about saving time (though it’s a major perk). It’s about eliminating errors, improving accuracy, and focusing on what truly matters – analyzing data and making informed decisions. What are you waiting for? Implement the tricks above and become an Excel power user in no time.

Aside from automation, you can also explore the templates gallery to speed up your workflow. Check out our dedicated guide to find the top free Excel templates.