Saturday, March 18, 2023

The most used shortcuts in Excel

The mighty F4 they say is the most used shortcuts in Excel.

I was blown away when I learned from 5.7.1 and 5.7.2 in IS101 Microsoft Excel, that adding dollar signs in formula references can make them absolute, relative or mixed.  When you are not editing a formula, use F4 to repeat the last command. I mean, you perform a certain step, such as inserting a row in a spreadsheet, you can swiftly repeat this step by using the F4 key.  If, immediately after inserting the row, you realize that you meant to insert two rows, not just one.  Instead of re-executing the keystrokes that you used to insert the row the first time, simply press F4 (repeat last command). Viola!


I specially liked the fact I can cycle the type of cell reference: 1) in the relative reference (A1)  2) absolute reference ($A$1)  3) mixed references (A$1, $A$1) to switch between.  

So much to learn so little time.

8 comments:

  1. So much to learn so little time indeed!

    Toggling between the four states of absolute/relative for a cell reference is definitely made easy by the F4 shortcut :-)

    For me, in a web browser, F5 (refresh/reload) is my most used shortcut key ^_^

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  2. It took me a minute for my brain to figure out the absolute, relative and mixed references. And to be honest I still have to stop and think. My only hope that under the time crunch my brain will move a lot faster.

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  3. pressing F4 (repeat last command), I don't know about that, thanks for sharing. it is committed into my memory.

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  4. Using F4 has become my favorite shortcut in Excel! It is shocking to know the amount of shortcuts Excel provides for easier accessibility. :)

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  5. Thank you for sharing this Linette, along with the video!

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  6. This year has shown me the value in the "F" keys, I never knew most of them have so much value, I found out that "F2" is the rename key, so if you click on or highlight a file and press "F2" it allows you to rename it without having to slow double click or right click rename.

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  7. The F4 shortcut is very handy thank you for sharing the video and your experience with absolute references.

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  8. Control + Alt + V is very useful as well. You can paste values, paste formulas, paste formatting, and even paste column widths.

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