10 Excel Keyboard Shortcuts You Need to Know

Excel can be a complete minefield for some.  Functions for this and formula for that.  So much to remember. So many ways to do things.

But you don’t need to be an Excel expert to increase efficiency and save time.  It doesn't matter if you are keeping spreadsheets to track your cryptocurrency interests or to track your lifestyle budget.  Learning Keyboard shortcuts can greatly improve your productivity when working with spreadsheets.

POLL

How often do you use keyboard shortcuts in Excel?  Put your answer in the comments below

• I never use the mouse – always the keyboard and shortcuts

• Most of the time

• I use the few I know

• What shortcuts?

Quick charts

Ever wanted to quickly insert a chart to your workbook to visualise your profit growth?  Simply select the cells in your workbook containing the data that you would like to visualise and press F11

Spell Check

More often than not, spreadsheets contain elements of text.  You can quickly run a spell check on your worksheet by pressing F7. However if you have text boxes on a worksheet, a spell check must be performed within the text box and not on the worksheet.

SUM

The most used formula in Excel is the SUM formula. In fact it is the only formula in Excel to have its own keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+ =

Currency format

Working in finance often requires formatting values in currency.  You can quick format a cell or a range of selected cells by pressing Ctrl+Shift+4.  The currency selected will be the default setting for your region in Excel.

Selecting Entire Rows or Columns

To quickly select an entire Row press Shift+Spacebar

To select an entire column press Ctrl+Spacebar

Switch between Different Worksheet and Workbooks

Very often accountants work with multiple workbooks open and multiple worksheets in each workbook. Navigation can be aided with the use of keyboard shortcuts.

• Switch to the next worksheet in a workbook press Ctrl+PgUp 

• Switch to the previous worksheet press Ctrl+PgDn

• To navigate through workbooks press Ctrl+Tab

View Cell Value or Formula

Sometimes it is necessary to view the formula in the cell rather than the value returned by the formula.  You can quickly toggle between viewing the cell value or the cell formula by pressing Ctrl+‘

Learn and Earn Activity

Considering there are many many more keyboard shortcuts available in Excel, share with us the keyboard shortcut you use the most. Which of the above shortcuts will you find most useful? add your answer in the comments below to earn steem rewards.

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