Favorite Excel Shortcut(s)?
To clarify, I'm not looking for lists of helpful Excel shortcuts as those already exist. Are there any specific shortcuts that you have found, looked up, or hard-coded that you enjoy using?
To clarify, I'm not looking for lists of helpful Excel shortcuts as those already exist. Are there any specific shortcuts that you have found, looked up, or hard-coded that you enjoy using?
+239 | My chaotic IB journey | 27 | 7h | |
+211 | MS M&A vs GS HC | 48 | 14h | |
+176 | Ending My Life if I don't get an SA 2025 Offer | 63 | 22h | |
+115 | Anyone live in a different country before? What’s it like? | 43 | 17h | |
+73 | Hazing in the Bullpen. What to do? | 15 | 9h | |
+53 | MD shoved food down my throat. Is this normal? | 16 | 19h | |
+40 | Improving in TMT | 11 | 4h | |
+35 | Basically necessary to be a varsity athlete to get BB IB from Bowdoin? | 22 | 1d | |
+34 | Later Chodes - I'm Taking My Talents to The Mega Fund Leagues | 8 | 1d | |
+19 | Too late to be Analyst 1 with 5 years of experience? | 16 | 2d |
Career Resources
Get Boost from WSP.
How's this add-in comp'ed to Macabacus's?
I have not used the one from Macabacus, but the WSP add-on has some nifty features, such as format cycling (good alternative to always hitting CTRL-1 for formatting multiples or percents), auto color, power fill (CTRL+Shift+R fills all the way to the right without having to highlight cells), etc.
Ripping out the F1 key.
I thought this was really stupid the first time I heard it, but then was given a keyboard without an F1 key and was like WHY DIDN'T I DO THIS YEARS AGO
alt+e+s+v and shift+L
ctrl + shift + L? Or you just like using uppercase Ls?
yeah i missed the ctrl. but i do like uppercase Ls as i was an avid blunt roller
Taking out the F1 key is good advice I use alt+a+t for the second shortcut though
Selecting all hardcoded numbers: 1. F5 2. Alt + S 3. O 4. X ENTER
You are brilliant!
Love this one
Where has this been my whole life?
OMG +1
holy shit
...-...
What exactly are you learning, how paste special works in Excel?
Sorry man, completely disagree.
Dude.... what?
Fuck this guy.
LOL. Use a mouse while you're at it.
Take out F1 key paste special with math operations (eg. input the number "100" in a cell and Ctrl+C, and then paste special on a selection of numbers -> operation -> multiply, all the numbers selected are multiplied by 100) all the other paste specials (I just love paste specials including "transpose")
If you have the TTS macros then Ctrl+Shift+T is super helpful.
Alt + F4
Wait... where did all my work go?! This is the worst shortcut ever!
Ctrl+Alt+Delete and enter
Why not just "Windows Key" + L?
The link below will take you to a very basic modelling tutorial. You can get all 31 days at once if requested. Two of the lectures contain files full of short cuts, probably the most useful of which allows you to paste a link with row anchoring and copy across to the whole row. This alone more than doubles my modelling speed.
http://info.f1f9.com/31-day-financial-modelling-course
Full list of short cuts below.
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.f1f9…
Second getting the Boost or TTS plugins if your bank doesn't already have a custom plugin. Macabacus works great also.
Ctrl + Insert -> Copy, Shift + Supr - > Cut,
Little Faster
alt + e + s + t
Really any of the paste special functions, but I like using the old 2003 shortcuts
i use this all the tim
Shortcuts suck, mouse is the way to go.
Some of my faveorites, in no particular order:
F12: Save as F7: Spell check Alt + E + S: Paste Special Alt + H + O + I: Auto fit column width Alt + =: Auto sum Ctrl + Shift + %: Percentage formatting Ctrl + 1: Formatting dialog Ctrl + G, then Alt + S: Go to special Alt + H +0/9: Move decimal places out/in
macabacus
If you have CapIQ, FactSet, Macabacus plugins, you can cycle through commonly used (or your own customized) number formats (dollar signs, percentages, decimals, multiples, etc). I found that to be a huge time saver when it came to formatting my models...that is of course until I had to do PE case interviews when I couldn't figure out how the hell change my leverage ratios into multiples...
Also, smart precedents / dependents is god send (also plug in). I don't even know how I'd go about auditing my excel sheets without it.
Could not agree more. Do the TTS / Macabus plug-ins have this or is it specific to FactSet. Would love to have these on my personal computer for future use.
Alt+E+S = Paste special? I have it in Ctrl+Alt+V (english version) :S
My favorite: F4 = Repeat last action (e.g. instert row, paint cell in yellow, clear cell...)
Macabacus
Center cycle - makes center across selection super easy Underline cycle - makes single accounting underline super easy Cell color cycle Font color cycle Blue/black font cycle Disable F1 Add or subtract a "0" to change magnitude
Regular
Go to special Paste format Index/match
I think you're looking for hot keys/send key combos. My favorites below. Note mixed in "+" meaning held together versus sequentially entered, I'm sure you'll figure it out...
Open Formatting = Ctrl + 1 Space All Columns = Ctrl+A then Alt + H + O +I Filter = Alt + A + T Underline = Alt + H + B + O Color = Alt + F + C Size = Alt + F + S Move/Copy Sheet = Alt + H + O + M Open Task Manager When Excel Freezes = Ctrl + Shift + Esc Add a ° sign = Alt + 2 + 4 + 8
I think you forgot the "H" for font color and size.
Oops - doing by memory. Much easy when executing and not thinking. Thanks.
Hide Column/Row Alt + H + O + U + C/R Unhide Column/Row Alt + H + O + U + O/L Highlight Entire Column Ctrl + Space bar Highlight Entire Row Shift + Space bar Add/Delete Column/Row/Cell Ctrl + +/-
And every lazy man's favorite: Copy Everything Down Ctrl + D
My favorite: Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow = Repeat last action (e.g. insert row, paint cell in yellow, clear cell...)
Are you trolling?
Alt H V V Alt + + Ctrl [
The only one I like that hasn't been mentioned:
Ctrl + \ = checks for inconsistencies among selected row.
Funny, I always thought I had just scraped the surface for excel shortcuts, but I actually use a ton of these on a daily basis...
Just saw this on chandoo for those of y'all who forget how to write index match formulas.
What it does is allows you to type iii which autocorrects to the reminder formula.
Copy the following line into AutoCorrect and then use iii as the text to replace
=INDEX( DblClk_to_Select_Column_to_return, MATCH( DblClk_Single_Lookup_Cell, DblClk_Lookup_Column, 0),0)
This way whenever you need INDEX MATCH you just type iii and AutoCorrect kicks in and you are 3 double clicks away from a robust formula.
AutoCorrect is found in the File, Options, Proofing Menu
I recently wrote a super short and easy macro that helps heaps with filling in empty cells in a tabular database, and now I use it all the time to get my datasets "database ready" to import into another database or a visualization software like Tableau.
It's basically to be used in cases where you export data and have, say, a single record of a county in Column A, but then 50 rows of data for that county in Column B, which leaves 49 empty rows below Column A until you get to the next county. Rather than manually filling in Column A a million times for each of the 100+ counties, the macro does it automatically (and it only runs once per keystroke shortcut so you have some degree of control over how HAM it goes on the dataset).
Here it is, I just saved it in a .txt file and paste it into a sheet whenever I need it:
Sub FillCells() ' ' ActiveCell.Select Selection.End(xlDown).Select Selection.Copy Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlDown).Offset(-1, 0)).Select ActiveSheet.Paste
End Sub
My favorite shortcut is skipping a "t" in "shortcut".
well played.
CTRL+[ then CTRL+G to go to last cell selected
Useful when checking crazy formulas that reference multiple cells
-XSX
Alt + E + S + T ----> Paste Formatting Alt + E + S + V ----> Paste as Values Alt + H + O + I ----> Auto-Fit Column Control + Y ----> Repeat Last Action Alt + H + B + .... ----> Edit Borders Alt + A + T ----> Toggle Filters Alt + H + H ----> Change Cell Color Alt + H + FS ---> Change Font Size Alt + W + F + F ---> Freeze Panes
Good amount that others have listed. A few more that are my faves: alt + d g g -> Group alt + d g u -> Ungroup (See how that last letter stands for group/ungroup??? insane) alt + hbs -> border all around (I remember this as harvard making you wellrounded. disclaimer: did not go to harvard) shift + space = select row control + space = select column when row/column is selected, alt + e d -> delete selection alt + ic -> insert column (you like that? there's more) alt + ir -> insert row (wow they're literally the first letters of their command)
All of the other formatting percentages, comma, dollar signs, blue font, green font etc. you can pick up by installing a formatting macro from either Training the Street or (my go to) a free one called Wall Street Training.
Just google WST macro. Download. In excel press alt + t i -> opens your macro plugins. Find the file you just downloaded and let magic occur. They should have instructions on which does what.
Lastly, not excel related but blew my mind first day. For word/powerpoint/outlook... select something you want the same format from -> control + shift + c (copies the format, including color, size, font, bullet layout, etc.) and then select text where you want that format to go -> control + shift + v (literally copy paste for formats).
Hope this helps. ;tldr cool stuffz
Windows + L -> beer
I have paste value, paste formula and paste format set as Alt+1, Alt+2 and Alt+3. Changed my life.
ALT, E, S, T.
NERDGASM
Favorite / most used has got to be CTRL + z
great post with similar info http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/excel-stuff-to-learn-before-your-su…
Using macros with assigned hotkeys to change things to the right number format or reverse signs. Hngggh.
factset IFERROR wrap: ctrl + shift + E
love it
alt + hor change tab name alt + hot change tab color
Alt+ Enter after selecting a range to autofill with similar data. Haven't seen someone post this up yet.
Alt-F,X,O is pretty handy
Alt-blowjob
The highlight all constants one is pretty clever, didn't even know you could do that at all, but in general this thread is pretty sad. Not because people aren't offering useful shortcuts, plenty of good ones mentioned, but that this is what people spend their time doing at work
Rip out the F1 key so you can crank even faster in excel? Seriously? Can't risk wasting even a millisecond when you are pounding out spreadsheet after spreadsheet
Don't forget to take out the caps lock key and the insert key. Then the windows key, scroll lock key, and pause/break key. And finally all of the other keys until you're left with just a big fat spacebar
If you live in Excel & are constantly editing cells/formulas (using the F2 key ad nauseam), tearing out the F1 key is absolutely a great piece of advice. One of the first observations at my current job was that most of the analysts & associates had F1 ripped out. After about two weeks, I understood why - the 'Excel Help' popup from accidentally hitting F1 is infuriating.
Some good shortcuts on here..
CTRL + [ to trace a formula back to its input (depending on the formula, doesn't always go where you want) F5 + Enter brings you back to your formula
And I changed the default quick keys a bit, so I can increase & decrease decimal with..
CTRL + 2 decrease decimal CTRL + 1 increase decimal
Up Up, Down Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Enter.
Anytime you are typing in a formula that starts with Alt (such as the paste as values, paste as formula, etc.) you can start with "/".
Anytime I want to paste as values, I use "/ + E + S + V + Enter", which is a lot faster than pressing Alt in my opinion.
Ctrl + [
on a cell that looks to an input. takes you straight to the input/reference cell.
ALT + M + D - shows cells dependent on the cell you've selected ALT + M + P - shows cells precedent on the cell you've selected
Both are great at tracing and understanding how things are linking up
ALT + A + W + G - goal seek
Shift+F2
So many comments to add so little time.
I didn't even know the F1 key had any function, so I don't know what good tearing it out does.
My favorite shortcut is to have other people do it for me. Very effective and time saving technique for me.
ctrl + d to fill down
If you don't want to "rip out the F1 Key"
Copy: Application.OnKey "{F1}", ""
then F11 + and paste that in the text box and press enter. F1 will be disabled until you close the workbook.
Also for shortcuts, just use excel regularly and memorize Alt key shortcuts. Alt HIR, alt+ HIC, alt HBN, alt+ AT, alt+ HIS, alt+HOR, etc. etc. encompasses pretty much everything.
Not necessarily for Excel, but WINDOWS+LEFT/RIGHT/UP arrow to snap current window to screen edge. Haven't seen this for grouping: CTRL+ALT+RIGHT Arrow (/LEFT Arrow to ungroup).
Not really a shortcut but... Saving your workbook in the ".xlsb" format as opposed to ".xlsm" makes calculations faster, the file size smaller and overall the workbook becomes more efficient.
Also a couple of my favs...
alt a - v - v : to insert a data list (aka drop down menus) alt d - t : to make a data table (for SA analysis) [toggle] shift - F8 : it holds down the ctrl key for you while you select multiple cells [toggle] F8 : it holds down the shift key for you while your select another cell
Alt F D P A
Alt F + U + C + K
Also, to fill in surrounding cells (instead of CNTRL+R, then CNTRL+D, enter one hardcode in the top left, highlight the region, F2 then CNTRL+Enter.
If you have Factset, CNTRL+ALT+"," to copy cell formula references and formatting and CNTRL+ALT+"." to paste them is AMAZING.
Personally, IMO the fastest shortcuts are the ones that you create on your ribbon by recording macros, e.g., standard formatting for headers (fill, bold, center, etc.), Borders, Sorting data, center across selection. Instead of taking several steps to do these things, record the macro, and make it an ALT+1, ALT+2, etc. This saves hours of work for formatting.
How do you put macro buttons on the quick access toolbar?
Ctrl - Shift - [ to smart trace precedents Alt - E will take you to the precedent and allow you to change the reference
Ctrl-Alt-Right Arrow
Ctrl-W so I can cry myself to sleep
Excel Shortcut-Closing the Format Cell Box (Originally Posted: 02/07/2008)
When opening up the format cell box using Ctrl+1, does anyone know how to close it? I know you can close it using the esc. button, but that doesn't enable you to apply your changes...Any tips? Thanks all.
that will highlight ok and then you can press enter to apply the changes
thanks, i just figured it out. Shift+Enter.
Most excel defaults have "ok" highlighted already so you can simply hit Enter to save changes and close the box
I'm a huge fan of the Dealmaven Fasttrack add-in, which provides a ton of formatting shortcuts.
I can't even remember the last time I resorted to CTRL+1 for formatting.
How can I get that? Also, how can I pull up the damn format painter. I can't find it anywhere...getting frusterating. Sorry guyes...never worked with excel that much.
Voluptatem iure atque ut deserunt. Voluptatem eveniet non praesentium qui ea. Nemo eius ipsam distinctio excepturi adipisci sit. Quidem facere autem nihil quo earum magni similique. Id sed ad nam tempora.
Amet ipsa non quisquam consequuntur. Ad reiciendis possimus magni. Nisi libero aut reiciendis ut. Reprehenderit saepe dolores enim molestiae quam. In et vero modi corporis iusto quam sed. Inventore accusamus quo omnis quaerat quam repellendus.
Et cupiditate quidem sit in consequuntur. Tempore alias qui ut quia. Minima repudiandae voluptatem voluptatem culpa dicta.
Voluptatem natus quidem numquam expedita deleniti qui. Necessitatibus quia sunt distinctio placeat corrupti possimus ratione. Tempore numquam porro quam necessitatibus et molestiae. Ut voluptas enim quis est recusandae. Minima voluptatem facilis quis. At quia at ut.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Porro enim ipsam aut minus accusamus qui aliquid. Tempore quidem voluptatem ipsum commodi dolorem. Mollitia hic accusamus ut ut dolorem explicabo. Quia ratione rerum et porro sit numquam rerum.
Sunt ipsa non est assumenda quia ut. Omnis aut suscipit voluptas quo numquam omnis. Itaque praesentium et molestiae non at.
Perspiciatis numquam sit accusantium. Ea est et non dolor blanditiis. Similique eum nisi autem sed aut cum sequi. Fuga velit exercitationem veritatis eum. Quisquam doloremque sed esse sunt sunt voluptas. Magni et consequatur vitae sit. At laboriosam animi aliquid voluptatem.
At qui eaque aut at. Nemo pariatur rem sunt id ex. Aut suscipit id aut a.
Quidem ipsum autem autem dicta inventore culpa. Autem vero aut sunt nulla soluta deleniti quia. Ipsum velit ipsa autem laudantium.
Fugiat eius possimus iure corrupti et a beatae. Ipsam ipsa autem quos at. Consequuntur architecto sed rem architecto eos in. Occaecati officiis eos harum qui ut. Aspernatur voluptatem doloremque nihil asperiores sint beatae facere.
Doloribus earum qui rerum fuga fuga quia aut. Aut aspernatur ut quidem molestias itaque consequatur earum. Aut dicta eos officia natus quo aut aut. Est praesentium aperiam eos nam at maiores voluptatem non. Eius ut dolore alias enim. Est excepturi quia et nisi consequatur.
Facilis reprehenderit quod suscipit in. Soluta aut consequatur velit rerum delectus.
Sed et ipsam ea dolores ullam. Beatae eos fugit est minus nam quo. Ut architecto et minus.
Dolorem voluptates voluptates atque. Sed sint qui et. Deserunt itaque odio fugiat sequi laboriosam et suscipit. Aliquid eum nostrum est ut molestias.
Sunt est culpa repellendus et quasi voluptatibus tempora. Sapiente error libero voluptatem quisquam nostrum. Nulla ut deleniti facere est quo qui labore. Provident saepe rerum sed velit voluptas blanditiis.