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Most Useful Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

If you’ve used Excel, or just Microsoft Windows, you may know some keyboard shortcuts. As in, you can undo with CTRL+Z, you can copy with CTRL+C, paste with CTRL+V. It may surprise you just how many shortcuts there are. Microsoft has compiled a handy list of Excel 2010 shortcuts here.

The fact that CTRL+anything will perform an operation means you should not assign macros to hot keys of the form CTRL+. Instead you should always assign macros to CTRL+SHIFT+. That way no-one is going to accidentally run your code when attempting to insert a hyperlink (CTRL+K).

A long time ago, keyboard shortcuts really were shortcuts because a simply CTRL+B would save you having to right-click on a cell, select Format Cells and specify bold text. Or (marginally faster), negotiate your way to the “B” in the menu bar at the top. In Excel 2010, you can access these popular options immediately by right-clicking on a cell…so a lot of the most popular shortcuts are no longer as valuable.

…so, given most shortcuts are now fairly redundant, what would I suggest are the 3 most valuable shortcuts to learn?

1. F2. This will let you edit a cell starting at the end of what’s already in the cell. The age old problem with Excel is that if you simply select a cell and start typing, you will overwrite what’s already there. If you double-click in the cell, you will start typing at the point in the cell where you placed the cursor…so the easiest way to get to the end of the cell is to select a cell, then click in the formula bar. Except it’s not, because F2 will do everything for you.

2. CTRL+F. This brings up the helpful Find dialog box that will let you locate a number/a name/anything you like, in your spreadsheet. Much as Microsoft have been able to bring most functionality to your fingertips, the assumption is that you’ve already selected the cell that you’re interested in. If you can’t find it, right-clicking isn’t going to help you. So you can either go to the Home->Editing->Find&Select->Find option on the ribbon…or you can just use a shortcut

3. CTRL+SHIFT+*. This selects the entire table that contains the current active cell. How many times do you want to add borders to a table with 100 rows and find yourself going to cell A1, and attempting to drag down/right to select your whole table? Or want to create a chart of your somewhat smaller summary table? The good news is that you don’t need to mess around selecting everything manually as Excel can do it for you

These are obviously personal opinions; feel free to send us your own list based on your own experience!