Microsoft 365 Excel Intermediate (2023): Shortcuts

Name: Microsoft 365 Excel Intermediate (2023): Shortcuts
Author: Bob Akbar

Take advantage of shortcuts in Excel

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Course: On-Demand

Hello, my name is Bob Akbar, and in these lessons, we will cover shortcuts. In this lesson, I will show you shortcuts for basic functions. Let us start by beginning with autofill, and this is a function that fills in cells automatically based on a pattern that Excel sees. This is one of the more intellectual shortcuts so you can see I'm using this. I'm simply highlighting where the blanks are, where the one field is, and Excel is able to tell what my intent is. And the shortcut for this is Ctrl E. And you notice when I press Ctrl E, the emails all are the same format using the employee's first name and the employee's last name. Next, we are going to do autofill, and you notice if I have the number one and I simply press Ctrl D, it will fill them all in with ones. What if I want to fill this in like we did if we had a pattern of numbers and I wanted to drag this down? Is there a shortcut for that? The answer is no. However, I'm going to show you how to bypass this problem. If we put the previous employee number plus one, now I could use the autofill, Ctrl D, and it will fill in the values for us. So let's try that again. I'm going to highlight the empty cells and press Ctrl D. There it is. Same thing as dragging down the automatic when it decides that it knows the pattern. I have done some extensive research on this one. You would think if you only had the one and two and you use the autofill, the Ctrl D shortcut, it would fill in the rest of the numbers. So let's take out this formula. So we simply have the one and the two. There's no formulas. However, if we use the Ctrl D shortcut, it is different than the mouse in that it will simply take the first number and repeat the number over. So if you want to get the autofill to work properly, you have to use a formula that Excel can replicate for the shortcut Ctrl D. And there it is. Now, a few other shortcuts that are useful is if we use the Ctrl Shift key and you will notice the keys that are on top of your numbers, the dollar sign, the percent sign. If you hold the Ctrl Shift keys and you press those keys, for example, Ctrl Shift dollar sign, it formats your cell into a dollar sign. We can Ctrl Z to undo it. Of course, we don't have one. We can also do Ctrl Shift percent, and that gives us the percentages. Another thing that we can do is Ctrl Shift pound. This is not the British pound, I'm going to show you. It is the numeric pound sign, this one, not the units of currency. So if we use the Ctrl Shift pound, and we actually do have a date here, it automatically takes it to the medium date format. There it is. You notice our dates, they changed from just having the three digits to the second of February of 2023. This will differ depending on your computers and your Excel settings for the language settings, but it will give you the medium date format that is appropriate. Now, let's take a look at another function. Say if I want to find Warren, I can do Ctrl F and there is our find and replace, and tells me if I can find it or not, within the area that I'm looking. Now, Warren is also listed here, and there he is. We could also do the find next while we're at that screen. We can also do the Ctrl Fill, which we did at the Flash Fill. We did it up and down. However, if you want to do it to the right, so let's see how that would work. So say we have Jane and Matt, and we also have Smith and Jones, and we want Jane Smith. Now, this is how we did it up and down for the shortcut, but it does differ for Autofill and Flash Fill if we had Jane Smith and John Adam. If we were going to do the emails now, where we're going to do Jane . Smith, folks, these are not real email addresses. These are only used for our example for the lessons, so please do not try to email any of these people. They are not real. All right, so when we did the Ctrl D, and it took us to that side, in order for it to do it to the right, and if you notice, it will open up the email, we would have to do Ctrl R, and then it takes it to the right for the Autofill. Now, it's copying what we have here because we didn't define it in our tables, but Ctrl R works to the one side, to the right, Ctrl D and Ctrl E work for it going down. All right, and this is one of my favorite ones where we talk about absolute and static references. You will notice Janey is a static reference, and we want to alternate this between the static and the dynamic, and remember we can lock in just the row, just the cell, both, like we have right now, or neither, which makes it dynamic. So to do that, that's Ctrl F4, and you notice as I'm pressing this, the dollar sign is changing, nothing, and that's what it's back to, the final status. So let's try this again, Ctrl Alt 4, you notice the dollar by the K is gone, so the K is dynamic now, but the 5 stayed fixed. Now, when we press it again, now the K is fixed, the 5 is dynamic, and they're both dynamic, and that is the full range of the possibilities, because we started with the dollar K, dollar 5. Stay tuned for the next lesson, where you will learn navigation shortcuts. Thanks for watching!

Intermediate Provider : Bob Akbar 3 Lessons · 21m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

Keyboard shortcuts are a quick and easy way to increase efficiency by not having to resort to the mouse for some of the more common functions. By using the shortcuts, the user can trigger the command with the benefits and speed of the keyboard. By avoiding the extra time and steps, the user can continue their productivity.

There are situations where knowing shortcuts can save significant time, such as when the user needs to toggle static and dynamic references to see which one is the correct one. The traditional method requires editing the cell to find the correct syntax, and then repeating the same for all the other affected cells using the mouse and keyboard. By using shortcuts, you can simply arrow down, press the correct shortcut, and repeat in a much faster manner. Also, a range can be selected, and the shortcut applied.

Excel 365 provides shortcuts from common functions such as copy and paste, to select all, and more. These other functions include dropping down a shortcut menu to formulas. That is what makes this software such an exceptionally popular tool with all levels of users. The intermediate user can now create spreadsheets faster while using their time and efforts on productivity rather than menu placement of commands.

What You'll Learn

Describe keyboard shortcuts for common Excel operations and functions
Recognize the efficiency and speed benefits of using shortcuts over the mouse
Apply shortcuts for basic functions such as copy, paste, and select all
Use navigation shortcuts to move through spreadsheets faster
Toggle static and dynamic references quickly using shortcuts
Understand how shortcuts assist with Excel corrections

Key Takeaways

Keyboard shortcuts increase efficiency by triggering common commands without resorting to the mouse.
Shortcuts can save significant time in tasks such as toggling static and dynamic references to verify the correct one.
A range can be selected and a shortcut applied, speeding up repetitive edits compared to the traditional mouse-and-keyboard method.
Excel 365 provides shortcuts for common functions like copy, paste, and select all, as well as dropping down a shortcut menu to formulas.
Using shortcuts lets intermediate users create spreadsheets faster and focus their time on productivity rather than menu placement of commands.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this course for?

It is aimed at intermediate Excel users who want to create spreadsheets faster by using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse.

What does this course cover?

It covers shortcuts for basic functions, navigation shortcuts, and shortcuts for common functions in Microsoft 365 Excel (2023), along with the benefits of shortcuts and Excel corrections.

What skills will I gain?

You will gain skills in Microsoft Excel, desktop shortcuts, Excel macros, hotkeys, keyboard shortcuts, and keypress usage.

Why should I learn Excel shortcuts?

Shortcuts let you trigger commands with the speed of the keyboard, avoiding extra time and steps so you can continue your productivity, including time-saving tasks like toggling static and dynamic references.

What lessons are included?

The course includes three lessons: Shortcuts for Basic Functions, Navigation Shortcuts, and Shortcuts for Common Functions.