There are several operators that could be used in formulas.

If you simply need to perform a calculation, you can use the Formula bar as a calculator.

Formulas can refer to cells in other worksheets-and the worksheets don't even have to be in the same workbook. Excel uses a special type of notation to handle these types of references.

You can enter nonrelative references (absolute or mixed) manually by inserting dollar signs in the appropriate positions, or you can use a handy shortcut - F4 key.

You can use "Copy" (Ctrl+C) and "Paste" (Ctrl+V) options, but there is a faster way to "copy" a formula to multiple adjacent cells.

This tip describes how to use fractions simply.

A simply way to apply number formatting is to use shortcut keys.
This tip summarizes the shortcut-key combinations that you can use to apply common number formatting to the selected cells or range.

If you need to date-stamp or time-stamp your worksheet, Excel provides two shortcut keys that do this for you:

Often, data imported into an Excel worksheet contains excess spaces or strange (often unprintable) characters. There are two handy functions TRIM and CLEAN to cleanup such data.