Rose Report: Issue 19

Top Excel Shortcuts

Virtually everyone who works in finance—whether as an accountant, analyst, government contractor, or bookkeeper—spends a lot of time on Microsoft Excel. Here are 15 keyboard shortcuts that can help you save time and work smarter.

F2: Edits the active cell and positions the insertion point at the end of the cell contents.

F4: When a cell reference or range is selected in a formula, F4 cycles through the various combinations of absolute and relative references.

Control-Z: Undo the last action.

Control-X: Cut selected blocks of data. This command is most useful when you want to move the data completely to a different area of the spreadsheet.

Control-C: Copy selected blocks to the clipboard. This command is best when you want to keep the data you have in place, but also repeat it elsewhere.

Control-V: Paste the data from the clipboard into a new area of the spreadsheet.

Control-N: Open a new, blank workbook.

Control-S: Save the workbook you are currently working in. It’s smart to do this often to avoid losing valuable work—and time—if your computer freezes.

Control-A: Select the current region, which is defined by the contiguous block of cells that surround the cell you are currently working in. You can press Ctrl-A again to select the entire worksheet. These commands are particularly useful when working with a lot of data.

Control-Home: Return to cell A1.

Control-End: Navigate to the bottom right-hand corner of your data.

ALT-Enter: Create a line break in a single cell

Control-Tab: A quick way to switch between open workbooks.

Control-Page Down: Move to the next worksheet to the right.

Control-Page Up: Move to the next worksheet to the left.