Google sheet is not Microsoft excel but it’s more powerful than most people think

Below are 9 Google sheet hacks most people don’t know about.

1. Create QR codes 

Do you want to link people to your page (landing page or payment page) using QR codes or Are you in a situation where you need to track event attendance, employee attendance, or any attendance of such? Then Google sheet is your sure plug. Why not use Google instead of relying on third-party apps or program that charge premium?

How to;

Write down the data you want the QR code to capture, then paste the formula snippet below.

=image(“https://image-charts.com/chart?chs=150×150&cht=qr&choe=UTF-8&chl=”&ENCODEURL(A2))

The variables are:

‘CHS’ means chart size and we imputed 200×200 square

‘CHT’ means chart type, which is QR in our case

‘CHL” means the data we want to encode in form of a URL.

‘A2’ reference to the cell containing the data you want to create a QR code for.

You can scan the QR codes in the image below and confirm the magic.

2. Translate Text

Need to convert data from one language to another?

Use the formula below

Enter: =GOOGLETRANSLATE(A2,“en”,“es”)

As seen above A2 stands for the first row in the second column

En stands for English the primary language

Es stands for Spanish the targeted language in this context.

This will translate the words in cell “A2” from English to Spanish.

Replace “en” with “auto” and sheets will automatically identify the source language.

3. Time saver 

Assuming you’re signed in to your Google account, head on top to your browser’s address bar:

From there type: “sheet.new”

A new Google sheet is created for you on the web. (Works for docs too)

4. Sparklines:

Easily visualize data trends by adding sparklines to your sheet.

Sparklines are nifty mini charts that take up only a cell’s worth of space in a spreadsheet. This lets you display your data visually without the need for much space at all, so they work well in many situations

To add a basic “mini-graph” inside a cell, it’s as simple as inputting:

=SPARKLINE (A1:B2) – (Where A2:B2 represents your range of data.)

5. Explore 

Need to do some number crunching?

Let Google’s AI do the work for you.

Highlight the range of data

Move your cursor to the starburst-shaped icon in the bottom right corner.

Click “explore” – complex charts, analytics, & detailed info. Generated automatically.

Let’s explore using the sparkline figure above

6. Heat maps

With conditional formatting, you can turn your data into a heat map to easily identify trends and patterns

Select the data range in the Google sheet

Format_>Conditional Formatting

Click “Color scale”

Select colors to represent: – Min, Mid, & Max

7. Finance 

Do you want to monitor stock prices, spot trends, & quickly review historical data? Then GOOGLE FINANCE should be your plug. Why? It accurately generates data in minutes and is easy to navigate and free to use.

Want to see the NASDAQ Google, Facebook, eBay closing prices for 2014 starting from 1st January to 31st December?

Paste the formula below

=GOOGLEFINANCE(“NASDAQ:GOOG”, “price”, DATE(2014,1,1), DATE(2014,12,31), “DAILY”)

Change the Goog to whatever company you want to search

Note: You can only search for companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange.

8. Auto-email when commenting

One of the favorite things about Google sheets is the ease of collaboration within docs.

Do you want to assign a task or share the data/work you just finished with a co-worker?

Want to make sure they see it?

Automatically send an email to coworkers using comments within cells.

9. Configure your chart Interface

Make your chart stand out by:

• make a chart with figures just like the one I did in the sparkline section and as will be seen below.
• Highlight cells then click: “insert ->Chart -> Chart Type -> Pie”
• Now, double-click one section of the chart and select the distance from the center” option.
• Increase the % to make that section stand out from the rest!