Google Sheets Features and Functions

Keyboard shortcuts - Memorizing a few keyboard shortcuts will allow you to be more
efficient while working with Google Spreadsheets. There are shortcuts to move within a
worksheet, within a selected range, and to enter and edit data.
Forms – Allows groups of people to create a poll, survey, etc. for better team and customer
interaction.
Revert to an older version – Useful when one has already made a lot of changes to the
spreadsheet but realizes that it was wrong. Just click File >> See Revision History and
select Revert to this version.
Chat while editing - The ability to collaborate with colleagues is a major benefit of Google
Spreadsheets. While viewing a document look at the upper right corner to view a list of
other team members viewing the same document. Click the arrow to the right of their name
and a chat window will open allowing for real time discussion.
Formulas – Allows calculations including complex ones. Just remember the formulas to
make one’s life easier.
Gadgets - Google Spreadsheets Gadgets allow you to enhance the data in your document
by making it more visually appealing, allowing you to incorporate the data into web pages
and more. There are dozens of different gadgets available in the Google Visualization API
Gadget Gallery.
Google finance – Very helpful for traders, investment banker, businessmen, etc. This can
help you with your stock market research. You can track your current investments and even
review the stock’s historical data. Google even has a template to help you get started.
Import data tables - If a website has a table or a list of information that you want to keep
track of, you can use the ImportHTML function to essentially scrape that data and paste it
into a spreadsheet. From there, the data automatically updates whenever you open the
spreadsheet.
Reference data from other spreadsheets - If you have multiple spreadsheets (or multiple
sheets within a spreadsheet) that all relate to each other in some way, you may find yourself
going back and forth between them often. With google sheet, one can create a summary
sheet and reference all the other sheets one needs. Updating the original sheet will
automatically update the summary sheet,
Conditional formatting and heatmaps - Lets you change a cell’s appearance based on the
data that cell contains. You can access the feature by clicking “Format” in the toolbar and
then selecting the “Conditional Formatting” command. In the pane that opens to the right,
you can set up your parameters. For example, you might want to turn a cell (or cells) green
if the number they contain is greater than zero. Heatmaps are a great way to draw attention
to important data in your sheet. You can highlight particular values, outliers or errors using
conditional formatting.
Embed spreadsheets on a website – Allows the share of the actual document by sending
the desired person(s) an email invite to view it.
Scripts – Allows one to create creative and useful “apps” which can execute and control
stored data. Combining this with the spreadsheet makes life easier.
Collaboration tools - Allows multiple people to edit a spreadsheet at once, generally
tracking changes so that people can be aware of what's been modified by whom.
Apply filters - You can use filters to only view rows of interest within the sheet. This can
be really useful when you’re working with a larger set of data. Just select the filter icon (or
select ‘Filter’ under ‘Data’) and then you’ll be able to click the filter icon in the first column
row of your sheet and select the value(s) you want to be included.
Clean and Trim - If you find unwanted characters in your cells, you can use the CLEAN
function to remove any non-printable characters and the TRIM function to remove
whitespace from the start and ends of cells.
Lock data - If lots of people are working on a sheet, then you might want to lock down
some of the data to prevent mistakes. You can lock sheets and even individual cells so that
data isn’t accidentally changed.
Validate cell data - You can ensure that certain cells only contain selected data by applying
data validation to your sheet. For example, you can set validation so that particular cells
only contain numbers or even a value from a predefined list.
Charts, tables, graphs, diagrams – Creates a visual interpretation of the desired data for
clearer view and understanding of the subject.
Translate text - If your sheet contains cells that use a different language, then you can use
the GOOGLETRANSLATE function to automatically translate the values in another
language.
Split names and other data - If you ever find that you need to split the data contained in one
cell into multiple cells, then you can use the ‘split text to columns’ option (which you’ll
 find under ‘Data’). This can be useful if you need to clean up data, for example, if you need
to split first and last names into separate columns in your sheet.
Check for valid email addresses - If you have a list of emails and you want to ensure that
they’ve used a valid email address structure, then you can check those using Google Sheets.
It’s won’t check that your emails will be delivered, but it will help identify any email
addresses that will bounce (like ones missing the ‘@’ or ‘.com’).
Sparkline - You can easily add sparklines to your sheets in order to quickly see trends in
your data. This can be especially useful if you’re comparing data (like metrics from Google
Analytics) or if you want to turn your sheet into a dashboard.
Create QR codes - Barcodes are a useful way to keep track of things, like checking people
in at an information session, conference or event. And you can quickly create QR codes in
Google Sheets.
Quick data visualization - If you’re ever looking for new ideas on how to visualize your
data, you can use the Explore feature to see suggested ways to present your data.
Add-ons - There are lots and lots of add-ons you can use with Google Sheets. They can
make it easier to get things done quickly.

Sources:

 https://www.authoritylabs.com/7-google-spreadsheet-features-you-should-be-
using/?fbclid=IwAR28ZWP3iyRGRo25SWsHSSJi1YwB4Wz_UBEw7UEZ24f2RnCMI3nxLTrpbqg
 https://www.howtogeek.com/350261/5-google-sheets-features-you-should-
know/?fbclid=IwAR1cQNs8sfC0g-C836HithNwYl8GYXyB1VzfOhNP-nZ3yWnQb65lrNGQPlM
 https://www.techwalla.com/articles/what-are-the-features-of-
spreadsheets?fbclid=IwAR184Q9YaXzzRdW6k0muh-EOveNz4yZVNCNZLQVRv0iC9B-
fxqeRGlYm6Gs
 https://www.lovesdata.com/blog/google-sheets-
tips?fbclid=IwAR2pd7VdvdszpdAAeGwqk3Rsw6M48MqJzUnK3ETufIlgNNwR1WOXGeGTufU#goo
gle-sheets-tip-2