Did you know you can copy and paste simultaneously in Excel?
Just use Ctrl+D, Ctrl+R, Ctrl+Enter or Autofill.
These magic tricks don’t fit every situation. But when they do fit, they’re lightning fast.
Below is a magic show — and after that the magic tricks are discussed. [Read more…]
Below are 17 steps I take with fresh data, along with the shortcuts I use.
12 deal directly with data analysis; the other 5 are generic.
If you do a lot of Excel data analysis, these shortcuts will help you fly through your work much faster. Consider them arrows in your quiver.
When you right click on a Chart (or in any other context), you typically get a “context menu” that looks something like the ones further down the screen. Context menus give you a sort of hidden shortcut option I call “hybrid” shortcuts. They work by simply typing the underlined hot key for a menu option — rather than clicking on it.
I call these shortcuts “hybrid” shortcuts because they’re part keyboard shortcut, part mouse shortcut. If they were animals, they might be half-man, half-beast. Kind of like the mutants below.
My favorite hybrid shortcuts involve virtually no extra motion from my hands. My left hand stays on the left side of the keyboard and my right hand stays on the mouse. Call me lazy.
If you want to enter something in cell A1, and have the same value or formula extend down to A20, how would you do it? Here are three methods that are commonly used:
Here’s a fourth one that’s simple, yet not as commonly used — and you’ll see that it’s also faster and more flexible:
4. Ctrl+Enter
So how does Ctrl+Enter work?
Simple: just select your whole range BEFORE you start typing. Then, after you’re done typing, hit Ctrl+Enter instead of Enter.
In an earlier post I talked about some Excel Sort Shortcuts using the Right-Click or Context Menu.
Here I’ll talk about some really fast Sort shortcuts using the Alt key, or “keyboard accelerators” or “key tips.” As a bonus, I’ll reveal some fast ones using the Menu Key as well.
Below is a brief video showing you how fast these shortcuts are: