Category Archives: Keyboard Shortcuts

Manouver around Excel more efficiently with Keyboard Shortcuts.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS, UNCATEGORIZED

MORE ESSENTIAL EXCEL KEYBOARD

SHORTCUT COMBOS
FEBRUARY 13, 2014 XLC 1 COMMENT

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When you get used to using keyboard shortcuts with Excel, you start to realise that you use some
shortcuts together all the time. We talked through my Top 5 Excel Keyboard Shortcut
Combos before, but what other combos are there? What narrowly missed the (short)cut?
1. Change font type and font size – Alt+HFF [type font name], Alt+HFS [type font size]
Sometimes I forget to paste formats, or notice that my worksheet looks messy due to different
font types and font sizes that may have been pasted in over time. I often find myself using the
shortcuts above (usually with something like Arial and then 10), to quickly tidy things up.

2. Ungroup all grouped rows and columns – CTRL+A, Alt+AJ

Every now and then I inherit a spreadsheet from someone else that has clearly had a lot of work
go into it. They’ve spent a lot of time building something really in depth – so much so that
they’ve made it more concise by grouping columns and rows together so you just see the key
information. But I need to understand how it works, so I have to go through and unhide all of the
grouped columns, group by group. This shortcut unhides all of these groups in one fell swoop
(N.B. it’s not for unhiding hidden columns).

3. See what part of a formula works out to – F2, [optionally select part of the formula] F9,
Escape
Big formulas can be hard to get your head around, and if they’re not working you need to break
them down to see where the problem lies. F2 dives straight into the formula – you may then
choose to highlight a particular element of it that may not be working. Pressing F9 will calculate
just that one part of the formula. Often I will have each part calculated so I can see the big
picture and check that my logic is correct. Pressing Escape is important as it means you exit the
formula without changing it – otherwise it stays with all of its parts calculated and is no longer
dynamic.

4. All borders, with a thick border around the outside – Alt+HBA, Alt+HBT
I think small tables of data look tidy with thin borders all over, with thick border around the
outside. This combo does that really quickly.

5. Close a workbook and re-open it – Alt+FC, Alt+FR1

Sometimes if I make a mistake and want to go back to the latest version quickly without saving,
I’ll want to quickly close and re-open the workbook I’m in. Alt+FC closes the workbook (if
you’ve made changes press N at this point to quickly tell Excel not to save them – be sure that
you really want to do this), and Alt+FR1 opens the most recently opened file. Clearly if it was
the second last workbook that you opened, you’ll need to press Alt+FR2.
So there you have it – five more easy but useful shortcut combos.

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KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

TEXT ALIGNMENT KEYBOARD

SHORTCUTS
JULY 25, 2012 XLC 3 COMMENTS

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We’re going to show you how to quickly use keyboard shortcuts to align text both vertically and
horizontally within cells in Microsoft Excel (the screenshots used are in Excel 2010, but the
relevant sections of the Ribbon and how keyboard shortcuts work with them are exactly the same
as in Excel 2007).

[showmyads]

You may have noticed that if you press the Alt key (Alt stands for Alternate) lots of letters
appear over the Ribbon (the standard toolbar at the top of Excel). Here’s what it looks like:
What the Excel 2010 Ribbon looks like when you press the Alt key
Our text alignment shortcuts are in the Home tab of the Ribbon, so after pressing Alt we press H:
Excel Ribbon: Press Alt then H
Once you’ve pressed H you’ll see a whole new batch of letters appear above parts of the Home
tab (if you weren’t on the Home tab to start with it will appear). In this example we’re going to
Left Align, so you’ll now need to press AL:
Press Alt HAL to left align
And that’s it! You’ve learned to left align by pressing Alt HAL.

All the other text alignment shortcuts follow the same pattern – they start Alt HA and then the
letter for where you want to align.

[showmyads]

I will leave you with a quick summary of all of the basic alignment keyboard shortcuts, may they
serve you well:
 Keyboard
Shortcuts to Align Text Left, Centre, Right

Keyboard Shortcuts to Align Text Top, Middle, Bottom

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BEGINNERS, KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

YOUR FIRST 10 EXCEL KEYBOARD

SHORTCUTS (AKA THE BASICS)
MARCH 31, 2012 XLCALIBRE 1 COMMENT

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Never used a keyboard shortcut? Want to save time in Excel? Here’s where to start:
1. Ctrl+Z Undo
2. Ctrl+Y Redo
3. Ctrl+C Copy
4. Ctrl+V Paste
5. Ctrl+S Save
[showmyads]

6. Ctrl+N New Workbook

7. Ctrl+O Open
8. Ctrl+F Find
9. Ctrl+P Print
10. Ctrl+A Select All

Have you got those down now? Good work, you’re on your way. If you’re ready to learn some
more, we’ve got plenty more!
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KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

TOP 5 EXCEL KEYBOARD SHORTCUT

COMBOS
MARCH 5, 2012 XLCALIBRE 8 COMMENTS

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After you start remembering your first few Excel keyboard shortcuts you notice how much
time they save you, and also how you start to use some of them together very regularly. Once
you’ve gotten used to using shortcuts this is the next step in speeding up your game. Here are
our top 5 keyboard shortcuts that play well together:
1. Apply autofilters and freeze panes on top row – CTRL+Shift+L, Alt+WFF
Most times that you have a large array of data you will want to have autofilters and freeze
panes. Therefore you may find that you use this alot. To get things just right, here’s a longer list
of shortcuts to put in a realistic context…
CTRL+Home (go to cell A1)

CTRL+A (select all – ensure that all of your data is included in the autofilter)

CTRL+Shift+L (autofilters)

Down Arrow (gets you to the right row to apply freeze panes)

CTRL+Space (selects the row)

Alt+WFF (freeze panes)

CTRL+Home (takes you back to cell A1, ready to work on your data)

2. Unmerge all cells – CTRL+A, Alt+HMC

Merged cells are bad. Ask anyone.
So once you know this you won’t use them ever again, so you won’t need to deal with them
right? Well, unfortunately not everyone knows this fact, and so its quite likely that you’ll have to
deal with other people’s merged cells. Or in my case, a work on various system-generated
reports that contain merged cells. So I use a couple of quick shortcuts to remove them all.

CTRL+A (select all)

Sometimes this will only select the current region (the surrounding cells that are being used),
which in many cases will be sufficient. But in my quest to eradicate merged cells from the world,
I want to be extra sure. So I usually press CTRL+A twice to make sure the entire worksheet is
selected.
Then I press Alt+HMC. This is a toggle, so if there are no merged cells at all in your worksheet,
it will merge them all! Don’t worry though, if this is the case you’ll see this message:

If that happens just press cancel and be happy that you have a worksheet with no merged cells.

[showmyads]

3. Add a new worksheet and name it – Shift+F11, Alt+HOR

Sheet4 is not the most helpful name. It could be anything. So when you need to add a new
worksheet, this will save you time. Its that simple.

4. Close the current workbook and re-open it – Alt+FC, Alt+F,1 (or in 2010 its Alt+FR1)
Why would I want to close the worksheet and reopen it? Its true, you may never need this. For
me its useful for two reasons:
1. I’ve made some changes that I don’t want to keep, but I want to keep on working on the
workbook. If this is the case, you’ll probably have to tell Excel that you don’t want to save
changes after Alt+FC.

2. I’m working on a macro that is always on (using Worksheet_Calculate()). I will use these
shortcuts to either open the workbook again and enable macros for testing (in this case I’ll start
with CTRL+S to save the changes I’ve made), or to stop testing and open the workbook
with macros disabled to make further changes.
5. Select column and remove/highlight duplicates – CTRL+Space, Remove:Alt+AM or
Highlight: Alt+HLHD
CTRL Space selects the whole column and then you can choose whether you want to remove or
highlight the duplicates. If you want to do this in a row instead you should start with
Shift+Space.

So there you have it, some quick keyboard combos. Clearly this is not an exhaustive list, and you
may not use them all yourself depending on what you use Excel for.

If you like Excel tips and keyboard shortcuts, you may want to follow @XLCalibre on Twitter,
Like our page on Facebook, or join our group on LinkedIn.
There is another post here with more shortcut combos.
And of course, we’ve got loads more keyboard shortcuts here…
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HR DASHBOARD, KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

HR DASHBOARD TIP: DEALING WITH

CHARTS, PICTURES & SHAPES IN
EXCEL
MARCH 1, 2012 XLCALIBRE LEAVE A COMMENT

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A good HR dashboard or Balanced Scorecard is clear and well presented conveying a

snapshot of key data quickly. Charts are one way of doing this, and you may want to use pictures
or objects to be consistent with corporate branding. And if you’re using lots
of pictures, charts or other objects in Excel (and especially if you’re hiding them or they’re
overlapping) things can get a bit fiddly.
Handling Lots of Objects
That’s why Excel have provided us with the Selection and Visibility pane. It lists each of these
objects and allows you to quickly select them or hide / unhide them. It also works for grouped
objects…
[showmyads]

Grouping Objects
Say you had several objects that work together – a chart, surrounded by a background picture,
with an explanatory text box and topped off with a word art title. Once they’re all positioned
correctly in relation to each other, you can group them so that are easy to move around all at the
same time. To do this, select the first one with your mouse, then keep holding down control and
select all the other objects that you want to group together. Once you’ve selected them all you
can let go of CTRL. Right click one of your selected objects and select Group then Group again.
[showmyads]

A Handy Shortcut…
Remember that Selection and Visibility box we mentioned earlier that you can use to handle
lots of pictures? To bring it up quickly the shortcut is Alt PAP. How do I remember this? Who
takes lots of pictures? Paparazzi – also known as PAPs! So if you need pictures use Alt PAP
(there’s plenty more Keyboard Shortcuts where that came from…).
Hopefully these tips will help save you time, but don’t forget you can get more tips on this site,
or by liking XLCalibre on Facebook or following @XLCalibre on Twitter.
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HR DASHBOARD, KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

HR DASHBOARD TIP: COPY & PASTE

CHART FORMATTING IN EXCEL 2007
JANUARY 5, 2012 XLCALIBRE 1 COMMENT

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Sometimes you want to show several graphs with the same formatting or brand colours in a
single HR management dashboard. After fiddling around selecting the exact design for your first
chart you realize you have to remember it all and click through all the same options again. But
there is another way!
First you need to click on your first, formatted graph and press CTRL+C to copy it. Then select
the new, unformatted graph and press Alt H,V,S,T and then Enter. It may seem a bit long for a
shortcut, but if you deal with dashboards regularly it can save a lot of time and ensure that your
presentation is consistent. If you really can’t remember the shortcut keys, on the left side of the
Home tab you’ll find the Paste dropdown. Select paste special and then formats. You’ll still save
time.

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KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

EXCEL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS –

CONTROL WITH SYMBOLS
DECEMBER 26, 2011 XLCALIBRE LEAVE A COMMENT

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Another selection of keyboard shortcuts. Press Control and the following symbols:

` – Toggles between displaying cell values and formulas in the current worksheet.

~ – Cell format is General.

! – Cell format is Number with two decimal places, commas, and minus symbol for negative
values.

@ – Cell format is Time hour and minute, and AM or PM.

# – Cell format is Date (dd-mmm-yy).

$ – Cell format is Currency (with 2 decimal places and negatives in brackets).

% – Cell format is Percentage (with no decimal places).

^ – Cell format is Exponential with two decimal places.

& – Adds outline border on selected cells.

* – Selects the range of cells around the active cell.

( – Unhides all hidden rows in the selection.

) – Unhides all hidden columns in the selection.

– – Delete the selected cells.

_ – Removes outline border on selected cells.

+ – Insert cells.

; – Enters the current date.

: – Enters the current time.

‘ – Copies a formula from the cell above.

” – Copies the value from the cell above.

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KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

EXCEL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS –

FUNCTION KEYS
DECEMBER 23, 2011 XLCALIBRE LEAVE A COMMENT

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More Excel keyboard shortcuts – the Function keys

F1 – Excel Help

F2 – Edit active cell

F3 – Brings up the Paste Name box – allowing you to easily refer to any named ranges

F4 – Repeats the last action (or in a formula cycles through absolute reference options)

F5 – Go To

F6 – Flicks through the worksheet, ribbon, task pane, and zoom controls

F7 – Spell checker

F8 – Toggle Extended Selection – keeps highlighting cells until you switch it off

F9 – Calculate now (on active worksheet)

F10 – Just like pressing Alt

F11 – Create chart – uses range around the active cell

F12 – Save As

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KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

EXCEL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS – EASY

AS CONTROL + 123…
NOVEMBER 21, 2011 XLCALIBRE LEAVE A COMMENT

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Continuing our series of Microsoft Excel Keyboard Shortcuts, we’re looking at what the number
keys do when you press them with Control…

1 – Format cells

2 – Bold

3 – Italic

4 – Underline

5 – Strikethrough

6 – Hide/Unhide Object

7 – Hides or displays the standard toolbar

8 – Hides or displays the outline symbols

9 – Hide selected row(s)

0 – Hide selected column(s)

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KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

A-Z OF CONTROL KEYBOARD

SHORTCUTS FOR MICROSOFT EXCEL
NOVEMBER 21, 2011 XLCALIBRE 1 COMMENT

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Here’s a list of Excel keyboard shortcuts. Just hold control and press the letter and hey presto!
We’ll look at some of them in more detail in other posts, but this gives you a quick summary…

A – Select All

B – Bold

C – Copy

D – Fill down

E – N/A

F – Find

G – Go to

H – Replace

I – Italic

J – N/A

K – Insert hyperlink

L – Create table

M – N/A

N – New workbook

O – Open

P – Print

Q – N/A

R – Fill across

S – Save
T – Create table

U – Underline

V – Paste

W – Close workbook

X – Cut

Y – Redo

Z – Undo