30 Excel shortcuts to speed up your work

Time is money: It can sometimes take a while to find the right button to click on in the right menu. This is why many users resort to keyboard shortcuts. You can also significantly speed up the work process in Excel using shortcuts for frequently used functions and inputs. We introduce you to the most useful Excel keyboard shortcuts and explain how you can create your own.

Shortcuts mean that functions can be executed faster in many programs and operating systems. To use shortcuts like these, you usually have to press several keys simultaneously, although it’s not necessary to press them exactly at the same time. It works if you simply press down one key, keep holding it down, then press another one. The function isn’t carried out until you release all keys simultaneously.

The most popular key combinations are probably [Ctrl] + [C], [Ctrl] + [V], and [Ctrl] + [X]. These enable you to copy, paste, and cut files in many application situations. These shortcuts also work in Excel. We won’t introduce these shortcuts in this article, since they aren’t specific to Excel and can be used universally.

Instead, you will learn which special Excel shortcuts you can use to speed up work in the spreadsheet program. Besides the shortcuts for Windows, we will also list Mac Excel shortcuts.

Every user has different priorities and different challenges to overcome. This makes it impossible to offer all the Excel shortcuts to please everyone. But the good news is that Microsoft enables you to create your own shortcuts. You need macros for this, which make it possible to record and save a sequence of steps. When the macro is executed afterwards, the same steps will be performed automatically by Excel. The practical thing about it is that you can assign macro shortcuts and activate them quickly.

To create an Excel shortcut, first select the “Record Macro” tool, then select a name for the macro and assign a shortcut to it. You should choose a combination that isn’t already being used by Excel, otherwise the older combination will lose its original function. So, in addition to the default control key, you can also use the shift key and combine both with a letter. If you want, you can write a description with the new macro so that you can see straightaway what it does.

In this first mask, you decide how you want to save the macro. If you choose “This Workbook” or “New Workbook,” the macro and therefore also the Excel shortcut are only valid in a single folder. The best way around this is to select “Personal Macro Workbook,” meaning the macro will be available whenever you use Excel.

Once you’ve created a macro, you may need to make changes to it. The cell specifications within the function are always absolute. This means that as soon as you add another line, for example, it will no longer be taken into account by the macro. To change this, select the corresponding macro under “View Macros” and go to “Edit”. Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) will open and this is where you can access the macro’s source code and make changes. The function for selecting the area can be found, for example, under “.SetRange.”