If you have worked in an office that requires data processing, you undoubtedly know how valuable Excel is. And even if you’ve simply strived to work at a job that’s the most significant for you, you should be clear on exactly how beneficial Excel may be to get you out of a problem!
Since Microsoft Excel originally appeared around 1985, it has been a workplace standard due to its unique powers as a data processing program. Serving a worldwide user base of over 750 million people, Excel is a must-have software if you are an office worker!
But the essential component that plays a significant role in inefficiency is what a specific program is capable of accomplishing and how the users can make the software do the task they demand.
It is a pretty simple illustration of usability from an operational standpoint. However, you must adequately understand it significantly impacts how things are used.
For example, a person who only uses a specific device on its auto default settings won’t get the whole experience out of the device instead of the person who understands the various ways the device works and can use it at total capacity.
Excel includes a collection of shortcuts to complete the actions mentioned above fast. In addition, you can make multiple approaches with a few primary keyboard taps. Let’s go further into the Excel shortcuts that can assist us in functioning better on an Excel spreadsheet.
Why is The Need For Excel Shortcuts?
Excel includes many keyboard shortcuts that help you work effectively and enhance productivity. For example, a couple of keystrokes are utilized to accomplish essential operations rather than using the toolbar with a mouse.
Isn’t that simpler and faster rather than clicking with the mouse? Using Excel shortcuts dramatically boosts the speed and lowers the time needed to complete the work.
The question right now is, do you have to learn these shortcuts? The answer is no. Although, it would be a benefit if you could recall a couple of them. With frequent practice, you will be able to remember most of the basic Excel shortcuts.
Useful Excel Shortcuts and Functions to Be More Efficient
Whether you are a business professional, student, or researcher, it is likely that you will need to be proficient with this powerful tool.
While many people use Excel to perform complex calculations and organize large datasets, there are also a number of useful shortcuts that can significantly improve your efficiency.
Let’s dive into the most common Excel shortcuts and functions in this rundown.
- VLOOKUP
VLOOKUP is a function that looks for the item you want. The return delivers a matched number from another column. To be more precise, you specify a range, and VLOOKUP looks for the number in the first column.
It delivers a value from the same row but the result will be indicated in another column. As helpful as it is, it can be a bit hard to understand at first. However, you can easily learn more about it. There are a lot of VLOOKUP for dummies tutorials and forums on the internet that you could rely on.
When used properly, it can save you a lot of time especially when you are looking up a huge data set. Instead of looking for similar values one by one, you can opt to use VLOOKUP instead.
- SUM
The SUM function in Excel is much easier to understand than VLOOKUP but is equally useful. This function allows you to compute for the summation of the values within your desired range.
- Home Button
Tap on the “Home” button if you have to go back to the start of a column without swiping up, saving time and providing efficiency. Also, you may click the CTRL and HOME keys together just to travel to the start of a sheet or CTRL+FINISH if you want to browse fast to the end of the page.
- Ctrl + A or Cmd + A
When you use this sequence of keystrokes, you pick all the fields in your sheet. So you don’t have to click-and-dragging your way through to the end of the page. But if your mouse is in an empty cell, it picks all the cells. But if your pointer is on a cell bordered by other cells, it chooses all the cells.
- Ctrl + Arrow buttons / Cmd + Arrow buttons
This sequence is your choice when you want to navigate fast through your Excel document. It is a simple technique to move around the page if you are required to cross to the other side of the document sheet.
You may hit Ctrl together with the direction you wish to move in, and the pointer will instantly go to the last cell in that direction containing data. Further, it also pauses when it finds a cell without data along the route.
- Ctrl + Arrow Up/Down
If you suffer from having so many sheets on one page and you’re caught attempting to browse them using the bars on the bottom, then this sequence will be an incredible rescue for you!
Simply tap Ctrl and hit either the Down arrow to move to the next sheet or click the Up arrow to get to the previous sheet.
- Ctrl + H
If you’re hunting all over your sheet for a certain number or a list of values, but you truly can’t locate it, the Find and Replace box will come in helpful. When you hit Ctrl + H sequence, you can instantly open it, and you can use it to search and change anything throughout your whole page!
In addition, with the dialogue box opened, you can click CTRL + TAB sequence to switch between the Find and replace options without clicking the mouse pointer.
- Ctrl + Shift button + (plus)
This sequence can assist you and allow you to add new columns or rows to the sheets rapidly. This shortcut works in the way that if you select one row or column, you will add only one, and if you choose five as an example, you will add five instantly, so you will save time and won’t have to click manually with the mouse to add rows and columns.
- Ctrl + R
With this button combination, you can complete a list of data in the cells to the end. It’s a straightforward process that can help your work if you have a lot of data to be entered.
Just select a number or equation in a specified range and then apply the combination, and you will fill the cell on the right end with the number chosen.
Conclusion
Excel shortcut combinations would benefit you, and the time needed to finish your reports and data analysis will be much quicker than before. Also, these are only some of the most used shortcut sequences, and keep in mind that Excel provides a lot more to help you with your datasheets.
Look for other combinations that can be useful for your workspace. We hope that this article helped and you found these shortcuts helpful, and with working every day on Excel, you can master them.
Excel skills and experience with productivity software are required for 82% of jobs. There are numerous online Excel courses that you can enroll in and get the knowledge when the next career opportunity shows up.
