Before we start, I want to show you an option related to cursor movement in Excel. On Windows, press Alt + F, then T for Options, and A for Advanced. On a Mac, type command + comma to go to Preference, then click Edit. When you press Return, the cursor normally moves down, but note that you can specify another direction if you like, and you can even turn off cursor movement altogether, if you want the cursor to stay in the same place after pressing enter. I’ll leave this alone for now, but I want to make sure you know it’s there. Normally, as you enter data in Excel, you’ll see the cursor move down when you press return or enter. However, you can override this behavior with specific shortcuts. Shift + Enter will move the cursor up. Pressing tab instead of enter will move the cursor right… And shift + tab will move the cursor to the left. To enter a value and stay in the same cell, you can use Control + Enter. This same shortcut is a really useful way to enter the same data in multiple cells at the same time. Just make a selection that includes multiple cells, type a value, and press control + enter. There are two more very handy shortcuts for filling, or copying, data from other cells. Control + D, will copy data from the cell above. You can use this on one cell at a time, or, you can fill many cells at once. You can also work with more than one column. In a similar way, you can fill data to the right using Control + R. Note that the cells don’t have to be next to one another if you select both source and target. You can also use a shortcut to copy just the value from a cell above. For example, if I have a SUM formula like this…I can use control + shift + quote (") to copy the result of the SUM formula in the cell below, without the formula. Finally, a few special-purpose shortcuts for entering data. To add a hyperlink to a cell, use Control + K on Windows, Command + K on a mac. To insert the current date, use control + semicolon. To insert the current time, use control + shift + colon. You can use these shortcuts together to enter the current date and time. Just add a space between them.
Dave Bruns
Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.
