A few weeks ago we published this post about Microsoft Word keyboard shortcuts. Such was its popularity that we’re doing it again but this time for Microsoft Excel.

One thing we’ve noticed with these shortcuts is practice makes perfect. It’s not enough to know the shortcuts. You have to start and keep using them until they become second nature – only then do they truly start saving you time. But we seasoned Virtual PAs think it’s totally worth it!

We recommend opening a spreadsheet right now and start playing around with these tricks as you read the blog post.

So here we go: our favourite Excel spreadsheet shortcuts:

The basics:
*These shortcuts are universal across all Microsoft applications
1. Ctrl + a – Select All

2. Ctrl + c – Copy

3. Ctrl + v – Paste

4. Ctrl + z – Un-do

5. Ctrl + y – Re-do

6. Ctrl + b – Bold

7. Ctrl + i – Italics

8. Ctrl + u – Underline

9. Ctrl + k – Insert hyperlink

10. Ctrl + f – Find and replace (with find selected)

11. Ctrl + h – Find and replace (with replace selected)

Getting fancy

12. F2 – Edits a cell

13. Shift F2 – Edits cell comment

14. Shift + F11 – New worksheet

15. Ctrl + Home – Takes you to the beginning of the worksheet

16. Ctrl + End – Takes you to the last cell with content on a worksheet

Fancy schmancy

17. Shift + Space – Select an entire row

18. Ctrl + Space – Select an entire column

19. Ctrl + 9 – Hide the selected rows

20. Ctrl + Shift + 9 – Unhide the selected rows

OK, now you’re just showing off

21. Ctrl+:   – Inserts current time

22. Ctrl+;   – Inserts current date

What have we missed? Do you have another need-to-know time-busting short cut? Let us know in the comments!