by QA

Keyboard shortcuts can really improve productivity for frequent users of Microsoft Excel. This article runs through some of the top shortcuts you will find helpful.

And to make navigating Excel even easier, we have compiled these handy tips below so you can have these to hand.

Navigating a workbook

Move to the top or bottom cell of current column

Control + Down/Up Arrow (moves to the next non-blank cell in column)

Navigate across worksheets

Control + Page Up/Page Down

Move to the next non-blank cell in a row

Control + Left/Right Arrow

Selects all cells containing data above or below the current cell

Control + Shift + Down/Up Arrow

Select all cells containing data to the left or right of the current cell 

Control + Shift + Left/Right Arrow

Select all cells in a range

Control + Shift + 8 

Create a new blank worksheet within the workbook

Shift + F11

Open the cell for editing in the formula bar

F2 

Navigates to cell A1 (or top left of sheet if Freeze Panes is on)

Control + Home

Navigate to the last cell which has been used

Control + End

Autosum the numbers above the current cell (or numbers to the left of the current cell)

Alt + =

Insert row or column

Control + Shift + =

Delete row or column

Control +  -

Add or remove filters

Control + Shift + L

 

Formatting in Excel

Insert the current date

Control + ;

Display the format cells dialog box

Control + 1

Apply number formatting

Control + Shift + 1

Apply currency formatting

Control + Shift + 4

Apply percentage formatting

Control + Shift + 5

Grouping worksheets

Make the same change to multiple worksheets

Click first required sheet and then Shift + Click the last required sheet

Want to learn more about Excel? Our Introductory Excel training courses are designed for beginners who want to learn how to create, edit, format and print basic worksheets. Advanced Excel training courses will enable you to apply advanced analysis techniques to more complex data sets such as PivotTables. 

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