Keyboard shortcuts 6 – Save As

Another really helpful keyboard shortcut this week… The Save As… function is one of the most-used in Excel, but it can be fiddle to do, especially in newer versions of Excel where there are multiple mouse clicks required to find your hard drive, network area, etc. So, from now on, all you need to do is press the F12 key, and you’re there!

Keyboard shortcuts 5: Copying the formula from the cell above

Here’s another nice formula – particularly good as it saves you having to re-type, or copy-and-paste, a formula to the cell below. A simply CTRL + ‘ will copy the formula from the cell above and put it in the cell you’re on.

Keyboard shortcuts 4: Closing a workbook

Finished working on an Excel workbook and want to move onto the next thing? Close it quickly and easily with CTRL+W – and if you’ve not saved it yet, Excel will ask you if you want to.

But don’t use the mouse – just press Enter to save!

Keyboard shortcuts 3: Selecting rows & columns

Following on from the last tip about selecting cells using the keyboard, did you know you can also select entire rows (shift + space) and columns (ctrl + space).

So tell me… are you beginning to think about ditching the mouse yet? Comments below...

Keyboard shortcuts 2: Selecting cells

Here’s another real time-saver as you continue your quest to ditch your mouse in Excel (yes, really, please do that!) - it’s about selecting cells. I guess usually you take the mouse, click in the first cell, drag to the last cell, then release the mouse button. And sometimes you have to do it twice because you don’t aim very well and you either miss or over-shoot.

Well, next time, just hold down the shift key and use the arrow keys to select the cells. Try it 5 times and you’ll find it’s a lot quicker than using the mouse. Why not give it a try now?

Excel keyboard shortcuts 1: CTRL + Page Up/Down

Continuing our little series on keyboard shortcuts, here’s my favourite – never again do you need to use the mouse to move from one sheet to the next – instead, use CTRL + Page Down or CTRL + Page Up to move through your workbook.

Give it a try, and why not use the comments below to share your favourite keyboard shortcut, and I’ll try to feature it in a future blog post...

Embracing Excel's keyboard shortcuts

As subscribers to my Excel e-tips mailing list will know, I’m a big fan of keyboard shortcuts – they save a lot of time in Excel compared to using the mouse. In fact, there are two types of shortcut:

• Direct shortcuts
• Indirect shortcuts

Direct shortcuts
These are accessed by pressing CTRL + another key. For example, press CTRL+X and you’ll cut the info from a cell; CTRL+V will paste.

Indirect shortcuts
These are accessed by a combination of keys pressed in sequence (rather than at the same time). For example, Alt>H>A>C will centre-align the content of a cell.

Over the next few weeks, my challenge to myself is to persuade you to put down the mouse, embrace both types of keyboard shortcut, and make the journey towards working more efficiently in Excel.

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