When you paste or import data into the Excel spreadsheet, you might notice unusual symbols like a diamond with a question mark. The replacement character � (often a black diamond with a white question mark or an empty square box) represents an unknown, unrecognized or unrepresentable character:

The drop-down list is a handy feature provided by Excel data validation tools. Drop-down menus limit the possible choices and help to avoid mistakes. However, not so many Excel users know the Source field of the Data Validation dialog is a formula field. Formulas in the Source field should return the list of the values, but they are not necessarily a range or a list of options.

Dynamic, dependable, conditional, or calculated drop-down list in Excel implies that the contents of the drop-down list for the current cell should depend on values in the other cell and change dynamically when the value of the controlling cell changes.

Named ranges are a powerful Excel feature that allows you to assign a symbolic name for the cell or the range of cells for later use as a convenient replacement for cell/range address in formulas.

Manual data entry into spreadsheets and especially entering data into text cells leads to many errors. Excel data validation tools allow you to reduce the inaccuracy of Excel data entry by restricting the set of possible values to a pre-defined list. Users can select the item from a drop-down list with few choices, instead of typing text into the data entry form template.

When you work with data in Excel, you often need to add more and more new data. However, it takes some time to update formulas, charts, tables, when you add new data. Excel proposes functions that can help to customize your data and avoid routine updating. This tip is about creating an automatically extended (also known as dynamically updated or just dynamic) drop-down list.

When you compute subtotals in your spreadsheet, it can be necessary to select only subtotals and copy them to another sheet for future processing. If you select subtotals and copy them using copy-paste (Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V), Excel pastes all source data with subtotals. This tip demonstrates the workaround that allows you to copy just rows with subtotals.

Sometimes you need to select a large data range. This tip shows how to select rows, columns, rectangular, or free form ranges in a few clicks.

Microsoft Excel proposes many different features for creating a perfect presentation of your data. One of these features is linked elements. This tip shows how to create a drop-down list and automatically show linked objects, such as images, text, hyperlinks, etc., for the selected drop-down list item.

Sometimes you need to create a chart that shows a large data amount. Then it would be useful to insert a scroll bar in your chart: