Excel’s GO TO Functionality

In my previous post, I showed you how to improve the clarity of your models by identifying inputs.

However, you might sometimes be having to work on someone else’s model and therefore having no idea of its structure. In such cases, you’ll find that the GO TO functionality can be very helpful.

For example, in the following simple model, the assumptions and calculations can’t be differentiated without looking at each formula.

You could go through each cell one by one to find the inputs, but a faster way of doing so would be to use Excel’s GO TO functionality.

In order to select all cells containing constants (i.e. no formulas):

• Click F5
• Click the Specials button
• Select Constants

The result should look like this:

Note that if only one cell is selected, the function will select within the whole sheet. However, if you preselected a range of more than one cell, the function will select within that range.

You can access this functionality:

• In Excel 2003, go to the Edit menu and select Go To…
• In Excel 2007, in the Editing section of the Home Tab, click on Find & Select then Go To…
• By typing the shortcut F5
• By typing the shortcut CTRL-G

This functionality could also be used for:

• Auditing
• Finding hidden objects (graphs, images, shapes, buttons…)
• Finding Conditional formats
• Finding Data validation