How To Format Your Excel Spreadsheet Quickly And Professionally With 26 Excel Keyboard Shortcuts
How To Format Your Excel Spreadsheet Quickly And Professionally With 26 Excel Keyboard Shortcuts
We all love the power of Excel formulae, pivot tables and even VBA. But, if your spreadsheet doesn’t look good, it’s unlikely people will want to engage with it. It’s so often a limiting factor - this is why spreadsheet presentation is so important.
EXCEL DATA ANALYSIS CRASH COURSE LINK
And, the good news is, Excel formatting doesn’t need to take long with some simple concepts and, crucially, command of Excel’s keyboard shortcuts. Yes, today we’re disconnecting the mouse and getting to know the keyboard a little better on the Windows PC.
‘But, I can click around Excel to do that!’ Yes – but only if you’re willing to invest time and energy into thousands of tiny, precise finger movements required to operate the mouse. It’s tiring! Keyboard shortcuts can transform your experience of Excel by easing cognitive load and freeing up headspace to think about what actual matters. Please, give it a try – and let 2023 be the year you jettison the mouse!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO
In this video, I format a basic spreadsheet quickly and professionally … using only the keyboard. I talk you through 26 powerful keyboard shortcuts – some of which I’ve used for a decade or more, and others that I’m just integrating into my vocabulary – whilst breezing through (for the most part!) this potentially time-consuming task.
My best tip? Learn one (just one!) keyboard shortcut every time you open Excel. These accumulate very quickly and are easily consolidated with repetition. Soon you won’t believe you were using the mouse at all!
You can find a list of all the shortcuts used below the YouTube video and in the Excel download file, also accessible in the video description.
Are you using keyboard shortcuts in Excel? Did you learn any from this video, and which Excel keyboard shortcuts for Windows PC have I missed altogether? Let me know in the video comments, I’ll get back to you there.
TIMESTAMPS :
00:00 Why do Excel keyboard shortcuts matter?
00:43 FREE Excel Data Analysis Crash Course
SHORTCUTS LIST
& = simultaneous
+ = sequential
(hold keys in brackets first)
01:35 Copy A Cell (To Paste Formats)
(Ctrl) & C
02:13 Show Paste Special Box
(Ctrl & Alt) & V
02:22 Select Formats In Paste Special Box
T
02:54 Activate Format Painter
Alt + H + F + P
04:06 Select Whole Column
(Ctrl) & Space
04:15 Add Column / Add Row
(Ctrl & Shift) & +
04:35 Select Whole Row
(Shift) & Space
05:07 Change Column Width
Alt + H + O + W
05:40 Repeat Last Action
F4
06:24 Select To End Of Column
(Ctrl & Shift) & Down Arrow
(not demonstrated) Select To End Of Row
(Ctrl & Shift) & Right Arrow
06:50 Change Row Height
Alt + H + O + H
07:42 Change Cell Background Colour
Alt + H + H
08:07 Change Cell Background To Custom Colour
Alt + H + H + M
08:45 Remove Cell Background Colour
Alt + H + H + N
09:05 Change Font Colour
Alt + H + F + C
10:15 Autofit Column Width (?)
Alt + H + O + I
11:52 Create All Borders
Alt + H + B + A
13:45 Change Border Style
Alt + H + B + Y
14:02 Create Right Border
Alt + H + B + R
14:09 Create Bottom Border
Alt + H + B + O
(not demonstrated) Create Top Border
Alt + H + B + P
(not demonstrated) Create Left Border
Alt + H + B + L
15:08 Toggle Gridlines
Alt + W + V + G
15:23 Freeze Panes
Alt + W + F + F
(demonstrated throughout) Undo!
(Ctrl) & Z