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!
