One of the things we hear from many working professionals is that – MS Excel takes a lot of time to work on. But what they do not know is that – there are few shortcuts that will reduce their work time immensely. There are several shortcuts available but here are a few which you must know
1. Moving between Worksheets in the same Workbook
Changing back and forth between different worksheets in the same workbook is very common. It is quite difficult to do it quickly in case there are many sheets.
In such cases you can use – Ctrl + PgDn (Mac: Fn + Cmd + Down arrow) to move you to the next worksheet to the right,
and
Ctrl + PgUp (Mac: Fn + Cmd + Up arrow) to move you to the next worksheet to the left.
2. Move to the end/edge of the data region
This shortcut may appear tedious, but it is essential if you frequently work with large lists. Rather than manually scrolling up, down, right, and left, place your cursor in the data and use the Ctrl + Arrow keys to navigate to the edge of the data range in any direction.
The cursor will move to the first available empty cell. If you begin in an empty cell, the cursor will go to the first cell with data/content and then halt.
Move right = Ctrl + Right arrow
Move left = Ctrl + Left arrow
Move up = Ctrl + Up arrow
Move down = Ctrl + Down arrow
3. Extend selection to the end/edge of data
While speeding through a large table is entertaining, it is a crazy task to select multiple cells. Because if you try to manually choose huge groups of cells (say 1 lakh+ rows), you will end up scrolling for a long time.
Simply add the Shift key to the Ctrl + Arrow shortcut to extend the current selection to encompass all the cells along the way, saving your time and avoiding all that scrolling. The nicest thing about Shift + Ctrl + Arrow is that your selections are always precise. Even if the cursor is traveling quickly, it will come to a complete halt at the edge of a data region.
Select right = Shift + Ctrl + Right arrow
Select left = Shift + Ctrl + Left arrow
Select up = Shift + Ctrl + Up arrow
Select down = Shift + Ctrl + Down arrow
4. Move to first cell in the worksheet
Larger worksheets are difficult to navigate. You can scroll the worksheet into place using the scroll bars, however, scroll bars take care and patience.
Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Home (Mac: Fn + Cmd + left arrow) to return to cell A1 regardless of where you are on the sheet.
5. Find the next match
We all use the Find option when there are repetitions of data.
Once you’ve set up a find and discovered at least one match, press Shift F4 (Mac: Cmd + G) to continue looking for “the next match.”
By the way, Ctrl + F (Mac: Cmd + F) activates Find. Ctrl + H can also be used to launch Find and Replace on Windows and Mac. On Windows, this will open the find and replace dialog with Replace selected.
6. Select Row/Column
Keyboard shortcuts can be used to select rows and columns which will reduce your scrolling time. Use Shift + Space to choose a row. Use Ctrl + Space to select a column.
You can extend your selection by holding down the shift key and using the proper arrow keys once you’ve selected a row or column.
If you hit Shift + Space while the cursor is in row 25, row 10 will be selected. You can then choose further rows above or below row 10 by holding down the shift key and using the Up or Down arrow keys.
7. Delete Rows/Columns
I’ve always despised the number of steps required in Excel spreadsheets to conduct something as simple as inserting or deleting a column. One option is to right-click a row or column heading and select insert or delete; another is to look for the Insert or Delete command in the Cells group on the Home tab in the current version of Office.
Much quicker are these shortcuts
[CTRL] + [+] Insert a row, column or range before the current selection
[CTRL] + [-] Delete a row, column or range before the current selection
8. New line in the same cell
This is where beginners get a lot confused as Enter does not work. This is often a puzzle to Excel users and I have no doubt that this puzzle has resulted in thousands of Google searches.
The solution to this is Alt + Enter (Mac: Ctrl + Option + Return) which will add a new line inside the same cell.
9. Zoom In/Out
To swiftly navigate through a huge spreadsheet, get a sense of its layout before printing it, or choose a wide region of the sheet without scrolling endlessly.
You can utilize the Zoom choices, such as the zoom slider and percentage indicator at the bottom of the screen, or one of the commands in the Zoom group of the View tab, at any time.
10. Edit Active cell
You normally double-click a cell to edit it, or select the cell and edit it in the formula bar. Quite simple… Unless your mouse is someplace else on the screen (say, switching sheets, scrolling, or in some menu option), in which case you must move the cursor across the screen to find it before you can do anything else.
These shortcuts make basic cell editing operations so much faster:
Use [F2] to edit the active cell
Press [ENTER] or [RETURN] to confirm the change
Use [ESC] to cancel the change
There are various such shortcuts in excel that will make your life easier. We will soon upload a PDF with all the shortcuts for your reference.
