Working Women Wednesday: Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

by Mama Mabel
 
As women who work outside the home (except for Granny Girl's current hiatus after a recent layoff), my mom and I know that anything that helps maintain a healthy work/life balance is good.  We're starting Working Women's Wednesday to share tips we've picked up that make our lives easier both on and off the job.  First up, we're covering excel tips and tricks starting with keyboard shortcuts.

I use excel at work almost all day every day.  It's part of being an accountant in the Age of Technology.  The people I work with are big on sharing tips for keyboard shortcuts.  If you don't have to move your hand to the mouse, you don't break your flow.  With uninterrupted flow, you finish your work faster and go home earlier!

There are the basic excel shortcuts:

Shift + Ctrl + "+" (the plus sign) = Insert cells, rows or columns.  A pop up box lets you choose which by typing the underlined letter of the appropriate option

Shift + Ctrl + "-" (the minus sign) = Delete cells, rows or columns via pop up box selection

Alt + "=" = sum (___) then select the cells you want to sum

Ctrl + [any arrow key] = jump to next start/stop in data in that direction

The following work in almost any application (Excel, Word, Outlook, Gmail, etc.)

Ctrl + U = Underline

Ctrl + B = Bold (do again to unbold). 

Ctrl + I = Italicize (do again to stop italicizing). 

Ctrl + Z = Undo

Ctrl + Y = Redo (as in undo your undo)

Ctrl + X = Cut (deletes after pasting)

Ctrl + C = Copy (remains after pasting elsewhere to data is duplicated)

Ctrl + V = Paste

Then there are the lesser known shortcuts:

Alt + H + K = Accounting format (this gives you two decimal places and lines up all your numbers neatly)

Ctrl + e = edit highlighted cell

Alt + H + 3 = double underline.  This looks snazzy at the end of a calculation to highlight the final answer.  It only works in newer excel versions.

Ctrl + T = format group of cells into a table

Ctrl + "Page Down" Button = Jump to next tab on the right

Ctrl + "Page Up" Button = Jump to next tab on the left

Ctrl + 0 (the number) =  Hide column

Shift + Ctrl + 0 (the number) =  Unhide column

Ctrl + 9 =  Hide row

Shift + Ctrl + 9 =  Unhide row

Alt + H + V + V = Paste value.  If you cut "=10+10", them paste value, the new cell will say "20" and your formula will be lost.  Sometimes this is desirable.

Probably the most helpful all-around keyboard shortcut is:

Alt + Tab = Flips between multiple workbooks.  This will work with any open program so you can jump between Word, Excel, Adobe, Outlook and Internet Explorer at will.  It goes to the last thing you had selected to work in.

Alt + Tab + Tab = Holding down the Alt key creates a pop up box showing everything you have open.  While still holding Alt down, tab to whichever page you want then release Alt.  Voila!  You're on to the next thing.  The program order will change according to what you most recently opened so be aware.

This is not a keyboard shortcut but is worth a mention:  

If you have multiple monitors and want a spreadsheet open on each, don't choose File/Open from within the first spreadsheet to create the second.  This will keep them on top of one another.  Instead, go back to Start and open excel again from the beginning.


Hope this helps!  If you have any great shortcuts not listed, please put them in the comments for all to enjoy.  Thanks!