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    Categories: MacTips

5 Insanely Useful Microsoft Excel Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac Users

If you are a power user of Excel on a Macbook then you will love these shortcuts as they will save you hours of time every month.

1. Navigation

  • Quick Navigation: CMD + arrow keys

Whenever you use CMD + arrow keys your cursor jumps to the last filled piece of the block of data you are currently in. e.g. if you press CMD + Left Arrow, then your cursor will jump to the left side of that block.

  • Switch Sheets: ctrl + Fn + Up/Down

You need to jump across sheets within a single file? No problem, the above shortcut allows you to cycle past sheets without reaching for your mouse.

2. Selection

  • Select All:CMD + a

This shortcut selects the block of data surrounding your cursor. This is a quick way to highlight a big section of data for copy-pasting or formatting. It has one caveat though – if your cursor is outside of a block of data (i.e. in an empty cell), then Excel will select the entire workbook.

  • Quick Selection:CMD + SHIFT + arrow keys

Quick Selection acts almost exactly like Quick Navigation except that it also selects the cells between where your cursor started and where you move.

  • Select Row:SHIFT + SPACE

This shortcut highlights the row where your cursor is. You can use this same shortcut to select multiple rowsas well.

3. Row Operations

  • Delete Row:CMD +

In order for this shortcut to work, the entire row (or rows) must be selected. If an entire row is not selected, a dialog box will appear allowing you to delete that chunk of cells and shift the other cells to fill the gap instead.

  • Add Row: CMD + SHIFT + +

Same as above, make sure the entire row is selected and active if you want to add a row

4. Fill Cells

  • Fill Right: CMD + r

When you have a block of cells selected, Fill Right takes whatever is contained in the left-most cell and spreads it across any cells to the right. This includes numbers, text, formatting, and formulas.

  • Fill Down: CMD + d

Works in a similar way to fill right. When you have a block of cells selected, Fill Right takes whatever is contained in the left-most cell and spreads it across any cells to the right. This includes numbers, text, formatting, and formulas.

Both these shortcuts are immensely useful when building a formula in one cell and trying to apply it across the entire row.

5. Productivity Shortcuts

  • Sum:CMD + SHIFT + t OR ⌘ + ⇧ + t

This formula will look for a series of numbers directly above or directly to the left of the active cell and apply a =sum() formula to them.

  • Toggle Filters: CMD + SHIFT + f OR ⌘ + ⇧ + f

This shortcut allows you to Toggle filters on the current block of data. This is very useful when you have just added a new column and would like filters to apply to that column as well.

  • Paste Special: CMD + Control + v OR ⌘ + ⌃ + v

Paste Special is the power drill for Paste functionality. It gives you a number of useful paste options like Transpose, Validation, and Paste as Values, with the last one being the most useful since it strips off any formatting or formulae.

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