Unlike life and all the quotes about why shortcuts should not be used. Software like Excel actually encourages the use of Shortcuts which makes work go faster. It reduces the time spent going from keyboard to mouse and allows you to seamlessly do the necessary change while working.
People don’t know their keyboard shortcuts and tend to go and search for it on the menu bar. You are probably thinking but it is a lot of effort to go and memorize all the keyboard shortcuts to everything.
Well, No. A lot of Shortcuts is universal in Windows and will work through the different application the same way. Learning them will get you fast on the track to see the benefits of using these shortcuts.
Then as you use the mouse hover your mouse above the option you use regularly and just look at the Shortcuts you will start to remember it and learn to use it rather than banking sideways to your mouse.
The List
Below is some of the Shortcuts key’s I use Regularly or am making an effort to use in Excel specifically that is working for me. This is excluding Navigation keys like a Ctrl+Right arrow which hopefully is known by everyone. These Shortcuts editing short cuts to start off.
| Universal VS Excel | Shortcut key | Action |
| Universal | Alt+F4 | Exit |
| Universal | Ctrl+A | Select All |
| Universal | Ctrl+B | Bold |
| Universal | Ctrl+C | Copy |
| Universal | Ctrl+F | Find |
| Universal | Ctrl+H | Replace |
| Universal | Ctrl+I | Italic |
| Universal | Ctrl+O | Open |
| universal | Ctrl+P | |
| Universal | Ctrl+S | Save |
| Universal | Ctrl+U | Underline |
| Universal | Ctrl+V | Paste |
| Universal | Ctrl+X | Cut |
| Universal | Ctrl+Y | Repeat |
| Universal | Ctrl+Z | Undo |
| Universal | F7 | Spell check |
| Universal | Ctrl+Alt+V | Displays the Paste Special dialog box |
| Universal | Ctrl+N | New Workbook |
| Universal | Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4 | Close |
| Universal | F12 or Alt+F2 | Save As |
| Excel | Alt+= | AutoSum |
| Excel | Alt+Enter | Start a new line in the same cell |
| Excel | Ctrl+- | Delete |
| Excel | Ctrl+; | Insert Current Date |
| Excel | Ctrl+: | Insert Current Time |
| Excel | Ctrl+’ | Copy Formula from Cell Above |
| Excel | Ctrl+” | Copy Value from Cell Above |
| Excel | Ctrl+` | Toggle Value/Formula display |
| Excel | Ctrl++ | Insert |
| Excel | Ctrl+0 | Hide columns |
| Excel | Ctrl+1 | Format cells dialog box |
| Excel | Ctrl+5 | Strikethrough |
| Excel | Ctrl+9 | Hide rows |
| Excel | Ctrl+D | Fill Down |
| Excel | Ctrl+R | Fill Right |
| Excel | Ctrl+Shift+( | Unhide rows |
| Excel | Ctrl+Shift+) | Unhide columns |
| Excel | Ctrl+Spacebar | Select the entire column |
| Excel | Shift+F2 | Edit cell comment |
| Excel | Shift+F4 | Find Next |
| Excel | Shift+Spacebar | Select the entire row |
| Excel | F2 | Edit |
For a Very Extensive list of shortcuts, I would recommend going the Microsoft site directly and reading up on what you use regularly to make your work easier.