Microsoft Excel is perhaps the most powerful spreadsheet application you can buy. But it also has some simple functions, like finding duplicates in data.

Open the Excel worksheet and select the range of cells that you want to search for duplicate items. For example, you might want to click a column header to select a column of telephone numbers.

Microsoft Excel can do a lot of cool things. If you need it to generate random numbers, Susan Harkins can show you how.

If your source data is in Excel and has duplicates, run Power Query to remove those duplicates before running a Word mail merge.

I usually set up my annual budget in one Excel workbook, and then I add 12 more sheets—one for each month of the year—so I can easily track the monthly data. Each sheet contains the same rows, columns ...