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Discover the power of keyboard shortcuts and how they can improve your proficiency with various tasks. Learn how to close, open, save workbooks, move cells, delete or insert columns, and many other functions using specific key combinations.
Key Insights
- The article provides a detailed guide on how to use keyboard shortcuts for various tasks. For example, you can close a workbook using Ctrl/W, open with Ctrl/O, and save with Ctrl/S.
- For copying, pasting, and cutting functions, the key combinations are Ctrl/C, Ctrl/V, and Ctrl/X respectively.
- To delete a column, the entire column must be selected, then press Ctrl/-. If only one cell is selected and Ctrl/- is pressed, a dialog to choose which cell to delete is shown.
- To insert a column, one can press Ctrl/+ when the entire column is selected. Similar to deleting a column, if only one cell is selected and Ctrl/+ is pressed, a dialog appears to confirm which cell to insert.
- The Tab key or right arrow can be used to move one cell to the right. If more than one cell is selected, repeatedly pressing the Tab key moves the cursor to the right within the selection and then on to the next row.
- Ctrl/End will take you to the last used cell on the worksheet, while Ctrl/Home will lead to cell A1, unless the panes are frozen or split, in which case the top left cell of the lower/right pane will be selected.
Build a Dashboard
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Source Sheet
Raw data lives on its own tab — never touched after import.
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Pivot Sheet
Pivot tables that summarize the source data.
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Dashboard Tab
Charts, slicers, and KPIs that draw from the pivots.
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Refresh on Open
Right-click pivot → PivotTable Options → Refresh on open.
This article is not an exhaustive list of shortcut keys, but it is a great start for using shortcuts!
All key combinations are NOT case-sensitive.
You can close a workbook with CTRL/W
You can open a workbook with CTRL/O
You can save a workbook with CTRL/S
Copy, Paste, Cut is CTRL/C, CTRL/V, CTRL/X
You can undo the last thing(s) done using CTRL/Z
To delete a column, you can press CTRL/- when the entire column is selected, or press ALT/H, D, C. If one cell is selected and you press CTRL/-, you’ll see this dialog:
Choose the one which you want to delete.
To insert a column, you can press CTRL/+ when the entire column is selected, or press ALT/H, I, C. If one cell is selected and you press CTRL/+, you’ll see this dialog:
Choose the one which you want to insert.
To move one cell to the right, you can hit the Tab key or press the right arrow. If you have more than one cell selected, repeatedly pressing tab will move the cursor to the right within the selection and then on to the next row. If A1:C2 is selected and you press the Tab key, this will be the selected cells in order: A1, B1, C1, A2, B2, C2. Shift/Tab will go in the reverse order.
CTRL/End will take you to the last used cell on the worksheet. In this screenshot, CTRL/End will select D4, even though nothing is in that cell:
To select cell A1, CTRL/Home will do it (unless the panes are frozen or split, in which case the top left cell of the lower/right pane will be selected. Here, pressing CTRL/Home will select cell D7!
To move to the next sheet tab to the right, CTRL/Page Down. To move to the next sheet tab to the left, CTRL/Page Up.
To move to the edge of a group, CTRL/Arrow key. For example, in this screenshot, if the cursor is in A1 and you press CTRL/Right arrow, you’ll wind up at C1. Do it again, and you’ll be at E1. Again, G1. Again, XFD1.
From A1, CTRL/Down arrow successively will take you to A5, A9, A13, A1048576.
When the shift key is held down, getting to any other cell will leave the active cell still active. So in the above figure, if you hold the shift key and click on C3, the selection will be A1:C3 and A1 will still be the active cell. If you press F5 (go to) and type in C3 but hold the shift key down before clicking OK, A1:C3 will also be selected. If you hold the shift key while pressing the CTRL+arrow key, A1 will still be active. For example, again in the above figure if you press Shift/CTRL/Down arrow, the selection will be A1:A5, with A1 being active.
Pressing CTRL/1 will bring up this dialog, giving you access to all the formatting:
To add a cell note, press Shift/F2
To create a Table, press CTRL/T or CTRL/L (L for List – lists used to exist before tables)
To enter the time, CTRL/:
To enter the date, CTRL/;
CTRL/` will toggle between showing formulas and showing values. That is, in one case you might see 7, and in the other, you might see =3+4.
CTRL/6 is a toggle to show or hide objects.
Fill down is CTRL/D
Fill right is CTRL/R
Apply %-format is CTRL/% (CTRL/Shift/5)
Date format (d-mmm-yy) is CTRL/# (CTRL/Shift/3)
Number with 2 decimal places is CTRL/! (CTRL/Shift/1)
Check Spelling is CTRL/F7
If you’ve done a copy command, you can invoke the paste special dialog with CTRL/ALT/V
Insert a hyperlink with CTRL/K
ALT/Enter while editing a cell puts a new line in the cell
You can select a column with CTRL/Spacebar, or select a row with Shift/Spacebar
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