8 Excel Keyboard Shortcuts Everyone Needs in Their Life

8 Excel Keyboard Shortcuts Everyone Needs in Their Life

If you’re like me, working with Excel can be tedious. I know it’s not the software that’s lacking, rather my experience, but I still haven’t found the time to take an advanced excel course. I have, however, managed to scour the Internet and learn some keyboard shortcuts that have saved me a ton of time.

When I’m creating spreadsheets, I’ll often need to insert the time and/or date. As I input loads of data at a single time, constantly need to reformat cells to display both accurately gets really frustrating. These shortcuts have cut down on the frustration and allow me to input each number much faster.

Time = Ctrl + Shift + :

Date = Ctrl + Shift + ;

Next to time and date, money and percentages are the most common items I’m inputting into spreadsheets. These shortcuts help me quickly format the text, so that my numbers display with the correct layout.

Money = Ctrl + Shift + $

Percent = Ctrl + Shift + %

Once I’m done inputting data, I often have to filter it, to report out on specific line items. Thankfully, this shortcut allows me to instantly view or remove filters, so I can quickly and easily switch back and forth between filtered and raw data.

Toggle Autofilter = Ctrl + Shift + L

If you’ve entered so much data that you now have to painfully scroll up and down in order to view all that you’ve input, you’re going to love this shortcut. Some of my documents end up with hundreds of rows, and scrolling seems endless.

Jump Up = Ctrl + ­­Up-Arrow

Jump Down + Down-Arrow

These shortcuts will take you from the cell you’re in to the furthest cell in either direction. For example, you’re working in Cell 135 and want to reference Cell 1, Ctrl + ­will take you to the top of your document, so you can view Cell 1.

Finally, if I’m working in one Excel document, I’m likely working in multiple. Trying to navigate between each document gets old – fast. Thankfully, Ctrl + F6 allows me to quickly flip between each document I have opened. And, this trick also works with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.

As more companies shift towards data-driven decision making and tracking performance, I hope these shortcuts serve you well and cut time-consuming tasks in half, as they have for me.

You can learn more document creation and formatting tips in the Microsoft Excel 2016 Series.