Using Excel Keyboard (and other) Shortcuts To Dramatically Increase Productivity

I talk about productivity and improving the efficiency of Excel spreadsheets on this blog but I`ve never actually discussed one of the primary ways that I save time when working in Excel. In the past, I`ve talked about adding the most common things that I do to save time. There`s no doubt that creating macros and using powerful functions in order to automate some processes are key but I probably save as much if not more time by simply “not searching” for functions in the Excel spreadsheets. How? You’ve probably heard of the most famous keyboard shortcuts:

Ctrl-C: Copy
Ctrl-V: Paste

These are clearly the ones I use most, not only in Excel but on my computer in general. Here are a few others that I use a lot:

CTRL+PgUp:Switches between worksheet tabs, from left-to-right.
CTRL-F: Find
Shift+Space: Select entire row

You can also get a full list on this PDF from the Microsoft website.

This certainly solves most of my issues but there are some functions that are more complex to use as shortcuts but that I use over and over. What do I do with those? Simply add the icons to the top of my Excel bar in order to make it much easier to do. How? Let’s take the example of “Paste as Values” which I tend to do all the time. How?

-Click on File

-Click on options

-Click on “Quick Access Toolbar”

-Find the exact function and click add

After that it will appear at the top of your “Excel” application:

Easy enough? I promise that you will be very surprised at how much time this will end up saving you.