An Microsoft Excel user would attest that the learning of shortcuts is what makes the difference. Using Excel shortcuts saves you much time because they increase your speed, make your work much more efficient, and avoid repetitive clicks and drags.
This beginner’s guide will introduce you to essential Excel shortcuts for a seamless experience and to boost productivity.
1. Why Do Excel Shortcuts Matter to Novices?
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Time-saving: One can save more time as they can rely less on menus and commands due to navigation speed.
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Reduced error: The elimination of most errors while clicking around, combined with increased precision.
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Enhanced Productivity: Concentrate on what matters: analysis rather than tedious clicking-through-menus; you will get your work done.
2. Navigation Shortcuts
Quick way to traverse huge datasets. These shortcuts are a quick way to go around the worksheet and into the cell where you would find the information you’re looking for.
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Ctrl + Arrow Keys: Move to the extreme left or right of a row or column.
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Home: Go to the start of the row
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Ctrl + Home: Take you to the start of the worksheet
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Ctrl + End: Will take you to the last cell that contains data in your worksheet.
3. Data Entry and Editing Keys
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These are some of the keys that will save time while entering and editing data.
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Ctrl+Z: Undo the last action.
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Ctrl+Y: Redo the last action.
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F2: Edit the active cell without having to double-click on it.
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Alt+Enter: Insert a line break within a cell to fit for more than one-line entries.
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Ctrl+D: Copies what is above in the current cell.
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Ctrl + R: It copies the contents of the cell to the left.
4. Selecting and Highlighting Data
You often choose ranges of data in Excel, and these shortcuts speed up the process.
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Ctrl + Space: It selects a whole column.
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Shift + Space: Selects the whole row
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Ctrl + Shift + Arrow Keys: Selects a range of cells in any direction going until the end of your data.
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Ctrl + A: Select all the data in the current worksheet.
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Tab: Move to the next cell
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Shift + Tab: To go to the previous cell
5. Formatting Shortcuts
Formatting the data makes it easier to read and understand. There are a few quick shortcuts for formatting that one can get started with.
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Ctrl + B: Bold the selected text.
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Ctrl + C: Copy the selected text
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Ctrl + V: Paste the selected text
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Ctrl + I: Italicize the selected text.
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Ctrl + U: Underline the selected text.
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Ctrl + Shift + $: Format the selected cells as currency.
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Ctrl + Shift + %: Format the selected cells as percentages.
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Alt + H, H: Opens Fill Colour immediately to change the colours of cells.
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Alt + H +A + C: Centre alignment of contents
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Alt + H +B: To add border
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Ctrl + Shift + _: To remove border
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Ctrl + Shift + &: To add outline to the selected cell
6. Formula and Calculation Shortcuts
One of the core functions of Excel is using formulas. These shortcuts help you type in formulas quickly and directly get the results you want.
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Alt + =: Automatically puts in the SUM function to add up a range of cells.
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Ctrl + Shift + Enter: Close an array formula. (a bit more involved but is great as you do it more).
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F4: Repeat the last command or change relative to absolute references when editing a formula.
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Ctrl + `backtick`: Select all the formulas in your workbook very helpful for cleaning up an especially large spreadsheet that might contain many complex formulas.
7. Some popular used functions
This keyboard shortcut helps you frequently save or print without clicking on many menus.
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Ctrl + P: Opens the Print dialog box.
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Ctrl + S: Saves the present workbook.
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Ctrl + F: Opens the Find dialog box to search your data.
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Ctrl + H: Opens the Replace dialog box for speedy text changes.
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F12: Opens the Save As dialog box.
What does that make for you when master shortcut?
These shortcuts will save you a lot of time, save manual effort, and make you easily accomplish complex tasks. The more you use the shortcuts, the more it will become natural, and the workflow will be faster. Whether you are working on small tables or large datasets, your workflow will be smoother.
CONCLUSION
One can learn these shortcuts easily. The effect they have on the productivity is pretty big, so you just need to practice regularly from the very basic one, and these shortcuts would come automatically in a short period of time.
As one becomes comfortable, he may add more complex shortcuts into his skills to change his work efficiency while working on Excel.
With practice, these shortcuts will make you a very productive user of Excel. You’ll be able to do more in less time, of course. And you’ll probably feel more confident about how to use Excel, too.