How to Use Keyboard Shortcuts in Excel

Microsoft has many keyboard short cuts available and built into the program that will make it so much easier to use and navigate Excel program. While you can still use the mouse to navigate through the workbooks and worksheets in Excel, sometimes it is really quicker and easier to use the keyboard shortcuts.

Opening new workbooks, and workbooks that have been previously opened you can use CTRL + N for a new one, and CTRL + O for an Excel file that you already had opened. If you have more sheets opened in one workbook, you can toggle between the open sheets by using CTRL +F6, although sometimes it may just be easier to click on the tabs at the bottom of the sheets to get to the right one it really depends on how many sheets are in each workbook.

Navigate the opened sheet:

To get to the first cell in the Excel sheet, just hit the "home" button. This is very useful if you are working in a huge file and don't want to spend the time scrolling up to the top. The "End" button will take you to the last entry in the sheet.

To move up one line, it's as easy as hitting the 'up arrow" and if you want to move down one line, you hut the "down arrow" on the keyboard. This is a great short cut if you are making allot of changes in the worksheet.

Selecting Text

To select text you can hold down the mouse key and select the text or click in the cell that you want to start, then while holding the "SHIFT" key click in the last cell that you want to select. This will highlight all the cells in the area then you can copy it.

Copy/pasting/Moving text

There are keyboard shortcuts that will help you move text so much easier.

To copy you want to be in the cell that you want to copy, click CTRL+C to copy. When you get to the cells you want to paste it, click CTRL + P to paste. CTRL+X will cut the text which will actually copy it, but allow you to move it. Once you hit CTRL+X you can then paste the data somewhere else in another cell in the book or in a new Excel sheet

Finding Help can be done quickly in Excel but hitting F1 this will open help. Microsoft has that built in and will actually work with most programs.