Excel Shortcuts 101 Shortcuts: Excel Formulas, Shortcuts & Spreadsheets

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Introduction
Excel is part of the Microsoft Office tools. It is used to enter data that can be financial, employee data
and any other form of data. Excel is preferred for this function as it is already arranged in cells, rows
and columns. You can also manipulate the size of tables, use formulas to make work easier as you
enter the data including percentiles and currencies. You can also easily total the data at the end of the
table using a formula. The excel functions can be accessed easily using the excel keyboard shortcuts
that will make you work more efficiently. This guide will show you how the excel keyboard shortcuts
and how to use them to complete the various tasks you want to perform. These include how to open
workbooks and worksheets, saving data, entering a formula, making parts of the data bold and other
functions including printing, changing the font and underlining. You can also open the ribbon to use it
to alter the data and selecting the different parts of the worksheet to manipulate the data and adding
hyperlinks to link different worksheets, workbooks or even websites.

Create a New Workbook

The work book on the Excel Microsoft Office suite has different worksheets that can
be used to store information. To create a new work book press Ctrl and N keys
simultaneously to open a new workbook.

Opening a workbook
When you have created a workbook and saved it you can use the excel shortcuts to
access the workbook later on. To open a particular workbook press Ctrl and O
together and then enter the name of the file into the text box then click on Open.

Saving a workbook
Once you have entered data into the spreadsheets on the workbooks you should save
the information to refer to it later. To save the work book press the Ctrl and S at once
or press the F12 will be used to save the workbook.

Printing
You can print documents from excel that you had saved earlier or the documents you
are currently creating. You can view the print preview before printing by press Ctrl
and F2 at the same time and you will get to view how the document will be printed.
To print the file press Ctrl and P simultaneously to print the file. Then choose the
number of copies you want to print.

Closing Workbook and Excel

Once you are done with the document and you have saved it you can close the work
book so as to open another. Press the Ctrl and F4 buttons. Then to close Excel press
Alt and F4.

Ribbon
The ribbon has the functions of Excel displayed at the top of the workbook. To open
the ribbon press Ctrl and F1 and this will display functions such as colour, font,
formatting among other controls. To close the ribbon press the Ctrl and F1 button once
more. This will close the ribbon.

Moving to the Next Control

The ribbon has different controls in excel. Once you have press Alt to view the access
keys then move through the different controls using the Tab button on the keyboard to
move through the controls.

Excel Help
The excel help will help you troubleshoot the problems you experience on excel. You
can also search on various topics on the help section. Press F1 button to open the Help
function.

Undoing and Redoing Action

When you are working in the workbook you can choose to undo what you last did.

Press the Ctrl and Z keys to undo the action you had last carried out. However, you
may accidentally undo the action you last did and to recover the data press the Ctrl and
Y buttons to redo the action you last deleted.

Copy or Cut Cells

Sometimes you may need to copy content from particular cells to other cells. To copy
cells press Ctrl and C at the same time. You can cut cells and move them to a different
column then press Ctrl and X at the same time.

Pasting
Pasting content can be done through copying or cutting content from cells. First copy
through Ctrl and C, or cut using Ctrl and X then select the cells you would like to paste
the content in. To paste press Ctrl and V. You may also want to alter the content that
you paste using the Paste special dialog box to pick what should be pasted. Then click
OK.

Insert a Table
You can insert a table within the workbook. To insert a table press Ctrl and T at the
same time. The table should have specific data. To highlight a table row press the
Shift and Space button on a particular row to select it. To select a table column press
Ctrl and Space. You can also select the entire table by pressing Ctrl and A buttons.

Navigating Cells
Normally to move through cells you would have to point the mouse to a cell and then
click on the cell to select. However you can easily move through the cells using the
arrow keys on the keyboard. To move up use the up key and to move down use the
down key. The left key will help you move to the cell in the left while the right key
will allow you to move one cell to the right.

Moving Screens
The excel worksheets has different screens depending on the amount of data you have
entered. This results in the different screens. You may want to separate work based on
screen to move to the right press Alt PgDn buttons. To move to the left screen press

Alt PgUp. You may also choose to move the screen up or down and to use the keys
press PgUp to move the screen up and PgDn to move the screen down.

Moving to the Edges of the Data Regions

The edges of the data regions refer to the outer parts of the worksheets which can
consist of more than 100 entries. To access the edges of the data region press Ctrl
button and one of the arrow keys to view the extreme ends of the data region. Ctrl and
to move to the upper part of the data edge, Ctrl and to navigate to the left edge of
the data region, Ctrl and to move to the right edge and Ctrl and to move to the
bottom edge of the data region.

Moving to the First Row

You may be filling cells that may be away from the beginning of the row. To get back
to the start of the row press the Home button.

Moving to certain Cells in the Work sheet

You can move to different cells using the arrow buttons to either move left, right, up or
down. To return to the first cell in the worksheet press Ctrl and Home buttons. Then to
navigate to the last cell in the work sheet press Ctrl and End buttons.

Highlighting a Row, Column and Worksheet

You may want to apply a formula or to change the arrangement of a particular row;
column or worksheet and you can select each one of the three with ease. To select an
entire row press Shift and Space simultaneously. To highlight a column press Ctrl and
Space and to highlight the entire worksheet press Ctrl and A.

Toggle Add to Selection

With the toggle add selection mode you can pick to highlight cells on the worksheet by
clicking on them. First press Shift and F8 then click on any of the cells you want to
select. You can cancel the entire selection by pressing Esc.

Moving the Active Cell

The active cell is the current cell where data can be typed. You can move from one
cell to the next as you input data. To move the selection of the active cell down press
Enter, then to move it up press Shift and Enter keys, to move the selection to the right
press Tab and to move it to the left press Shift and Tab.

Extending Selection by One Cell

Sometimes you may want to add the number of cells you have selected by one cell. To
extend the selection by one cell to the right press Shift and right button, to extend the
selection by one cell to the left press Shift and the left button, then extend the selection
by one cell up by pressing Shift and the up arrow button and to move the selection to
include one cell down press Shift and the down button.

Extending the Selection to the Last Cells

Sometimes you may want to extend the selection the last cell in a particular direction
in the worksheet. To extend the selection to the last cell to the right press Ctrl, Shift
and the right button. To extend the selection to the last cell to the left press Ctrl, Shift
and the left button. To extend the selection to the last cell up then press Ctrl, Shift and
the up button and to extend the selection to the last cell down press Ctrl, Shift and the
down button.

Extending selection by one screen

You can choose to extend the selection by one screen up to view the previous data or
you can move it one screen down to add new data. To move the selection by one
screen up press Shift and PgUp and to extend the selection by one screen down press
Shift and PgDn.

Extending Selection to the first cell

When you have made a selection you may want to extend to the start of the row, to the
fast cell in the worksheet or to the last cell in the worksheet. To move the selection to
the beginning of the row press Shift and Home. To move the selection to the first cell
in the worksheet press Ctrl, Shift and Home. To extend the selection to the last cell in
the worksheet press Ctrl, Shift and End.

Extend Selection Mode

You may want to turn on the selection mode to make it easier to extend selection to
either side of the worksheet using the navigation buttons. To activate the extend
selection mode press F8 then use the right, left, up and down buttons to extend the
selection to the cells of your choice.

Go To dialog box
The Go To dialog box allows you to search and go to a particular cell based on the
formula, numbers and other criteria. To open the Go To dialog box press Ctrl and G or
you can press F5.To choose the criteria for the Go To click on special and select from
the choices displayed.

Selecting Cells with Comments

Some of the cells may have comments and such cells usually have a red mark.
However, you may not be able to look for the cells with comments with comments by
scrolling through the all cells. To highlight the cell with a comment press Ctrl, Shift
and O. To view the comment click on the cells highlighted.

Adding or editing a Comment

You can add a comment to a particular cell to explain it further. To add a comment to
a cell press Shift and F2.You can also change the comment on a cell depending on the
change in variation. To edit a comment press Shift and F2.

Deleting End of Line

You may want to delete the entire content in a cell or row or column. Highlight the
area (cell, row or column) you want deleted and press Ctrl and Delete.

Deleting with the cursor

You may delete the data in the cell based on where you place the cursor between the
characters. To delete the left of the cursor press Backspace and to delete the character
to the right of the cursor press the Delete button.

Inserting Date and Time

You can insert the current date and time in any one of the cells. To insert the date in
one cell press Ctrl and ;.To insert the current time in a cell press Ctrl, Shift and :.

Creating a formula
Formulas help create values in cells that will reduce the time spent calculating each
value. Highlight a cell in the formula bar type a formula. A simple formula would be
=10+2 and the cell which has the formula will show the result. Then you can also refer
to values in the different cells using the alphabet letter and the numeric value of the
particular cell. An example would be =G1+A1.

Copy formula
Sometimes you may want to use the same formula for the next cell. To do this you can
either highlight the cells that you would like the formula to be applied on or if you
want it to be used for the next cell only press Ctrl and .This will copy the formula of
the cell above.

Copy value from the cell above

You may want to use the initial value for the next cell. To copy the values from the
cell above press Ctrl, Shift and.

Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are a common way to link documents to other documents or to websites on
the internet. To insert a hyperlink press Ctrl and K. Then you can add a hyperlink to
the choice destination.

Formatting
You can format excel using a dialog box for formatting. To begin formatting press Ctrl
and 1.You can then change the Number, Alignment, Font, and Border among other
settings. To change the format for the font press Ctrl, Shift and F.

Bold Formatting
Sometimes you may want to apply bold formatting especially if it is a title or if you
want to draw attention to certain information. To apply bold formatting press Ctrl and
B. To remove bold formatting where the bold formatting has been applied by mistake
press Ctrl and B once again.

Italic Formatting
You may choose to add italic formatting for the cells. To apply italic formatting press
Ctrl and I and to remove any applied formatting of italic formatting press Ctrl and I
again.

Underscoring and Strikethrough formatting

Sometimes you may want to add underscore or use strikethrough to cancel any
information on a cell. Press Ctrl and U to apply underscore and press Ctrl and U again
to remove the underscore. To apply strikethrough press Ctrl and 5 and to remove
strikethrough press Ctrl and 5 once more.

Apply Formatting on Another cell

After formatting one cell you can apply the same format to another cell. Select the cell
you want to apply the same formatting and press F4.

Aligning Text
Sometimes you may want to align data to be at the centre, to the left or to the right. To
align to the centre press Alt, H, A and C. To align text to the left press Alt, H, A and L.
To align the text to the right press Alt, H, A and R.

Adding and removing Indent

You can add an indent to the information on the cells. To add an indent to the data
press Alt, H and 6.To clear the indent press Alt, H and 5.

Increase and Decrease Font Size

Sometimes you may want to increase or decrease the font depending on whether what
you are writing is a heading or part of the data. To increase the font size by one size
press Alt, H and FG. To reduce the font by one size press Alt, H and FK.

Currency Format
When you are going to be making a worksheet with currency you can select rows or
columns that will have a particular currency and apply the currency format. To apply
the currency format select the cells that you want to have the format then press Ctrl,
Shift and $.

Percentage Format
You may have data that includes percentages. You can apply the format for
percentages by pressing Ctrl, Shift and %.Then enter the data and it will be indicated
with percentages.

Date Format
When you want to enter data that includes dates you can apply the date format. To
apply the date format press Ctrl, Shift and #.

Adding a Border outline

Adding borders helps to constrict part of the data in a neat table especially if you will
not be using the entire worksheet. To add a border outline first highlight the cells that
you would want to have the border outline then press Ctrl, Shift and &.

Adding borders to the different sides of Cells

You can add borders to the left and right of the cells that you want with borders. To
add borders to the left press Alt and L, to add the borders to the right press Alt and R.
To add borders to the top press Alt and T and to add borders to the bottom of the cells
press Alt and B.

Remove Borders
You may want to format the worksheet according to the data you want to enter. To
remove the borders press Ctrl, Shift and _.
Shortcut Keys
The shortcuts on excel are usually accessed using particular keys on the keyboard.
Sometimes you may not remember which keys are for a particular function. To view
the access keys press the Alt button and on each of the functions on the ribbon will
have a particular letter key assigned to it.

Table of Contents
Excel Shortcuts 101 Shortcuts: Excel Formulas, Shortcuts & Spreadsheets