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Keyboard Shortcuts

8:06 with Michael Watson

If you use spreadsheets a lot, keyboard shortcuts are your best friend. Learning how to use them will increase your productivity exponentially. An expert spreadsheet user will very rarely have to use their mouse to navigate and work with a spreadsheet.

Teacher's Notes
Video Transcript
Downloads

Example Files

you can continue to use the spreadsheet from the last video, or
open a copy of this spreadsheet to catch up to this video

Keyboard Shortcut Documentation

Common Keyboard Shortcuts

Select a cell and press Enter (return) to start editing the cell.
Ctrl-C (Command-C) to copy a selection.
Ctrl-X (Command-X) to cut a selection.
Ctrl-V (Command-V) to paste into a cell.
Ctrl-Z (Command-Z) to undo last action.
Use the arrow keys to move from cell to cell, row to row, and column to column.
Shift + an arrow key lets you select multiple cells.

If you use spreadsheets a lot, keyboards shortcuts are your best friend. 0:00

Learning how to use them will increase your productivity exponentially, and 0:05

save you so much time. 0:08

An expert spreadsheet user, will very rarely use their mouse to navigate and 0:10

work with their spreadsheet. 0:14

Microsoft Excel includes tons of keyboard shortcuts. 0:16

But sheets has useful shortcuts that will save you time as well. 0:20

Let's get started. 0:23

First and most importantly, let's start with inputting data into a cell. 0:25

Instead of clicking on a cell, you can just press the Enter or Return key. 0:29

Here, is a cell with data already in it. 0:34

If I start typing, it replaces the data already in there. 0:38

I don't want to delete the data. 0:42

I can click on the cell, then take my mouse up to the formula bar 0:45

at the top of the screen and click and start typing. 0:49

Or, I can select the cell and click Enter or Return. 0:56

Now, see my cursor appears and I can use the arrows to move around the cell. 1:00

Next up are Copy, Paste and Cut. 1:06

These work exactly the same in spreadsheets as they do in text editors. 1:08

And chances are use the same shortcuts as text editing software you're 1:12

familiar with. 1:15

For example, Copy is Cmd+C. 1:17

I select the cell I want to copy, then press Cmd+C at the same time. 1:21

Notice how the highlighting around the cell has changed to be a dotted line. 1:25

That means I've copied that cell. 1:29

I can copy multiple cells at the same time too. 1:31

Note that you can copy more than just a value, 1:34

you can copy a formula from one cell to another cell, or multiple cells. 1:36

Paste and Cut are the same as copy, you just have to use a V for paste and 1:40

an X for cut. 1:44

So I've copied these cells using Cmd+C. 1:45

Now I'm going to move over here and press Cmd+V, and it's gonna paste those. 1:48

I can also Copy these, Paste them over here or 1:52

I can Cut them by pressing Cmd+X and put them over there. 1:57

Paste special is super powerful, 2:01

it allows you modify what you actually Copy and Paste. 2:03

So if we look at the menu. 2:06

Under Edit, and go down to Paste Special, 2:09

we can see all the different special pasting that we can do. 2:11

We can paste the values, we can paste the formats, we can paste a formula. 2:15

Let's look at an example of this together. 2:19

Here, I'm copying this cell, I'm moving it over to column G and I'm pasting it. 2:22

Now, that's the formula. 2:30

It's a relative reference. 2:33

So it follows along as we explained in a previous video. 2:34

But, I can also copy this. 2:37

And then if I paste special values, 2:42

you can see that the formula wasn't copied anymore but the value was. 2:46

I use paste special values for all sorts of reasons. 2:50

One of the most obvious, is if I have a spreadsheet that is using 2:54

a bunch of formulas, and I don't want the data to change anymore. 2:57

I might copy everything, and paste special values so the data won't change any more. 3:01

Let's look at an example here on this spreadsheet. 3:05

These are all formulas. 3:10

I could paste special value. 3:13

And now the volumes are accurate still, but 3:17

they're not relying on a relative reference formula. 3:20

How about paste special formats? 3:24

You may format a cell one way, and instead of having to redo that formatting in 3:26

another cell, which could require multiple clicks. 3:31

You can just paste special format. 3:33

Let's look at an example. 3:35

I'm making this cell yellow, I'm bolding it and I'm adding a border. 3:38

This cell looks very differently than the other ones. 3:47

I'm copying it. 3:50

And instead of having to do all those different clicks. 3:51

I can just do one and the format has been copied. 3:56

How about this one here? 4:02

Again. 4:03

Format only, and we can see that the values haven't changed, but 4:05

the formatting has. 4:09

Moving along, there are ways to navigate around the cells without using your mouse. 4:10

Naturally, you can use the arrow keys to move around from cell to cell. 4:15

So here I'm pressing right on my arrow, now I'm pressing down on my arrows. 4:20

Holding down Shift, will allow you to select multiple cells at once. 4:24

Like so. 4:30

This is helpful if you want to copy or change a lot of cells at once. 4:32

So I'm copying these all, and I'm pasting all of them. 4:36

Instead of having to delete every single cell individually, I can hold down Shift, 4:40

and use my arrows, and now I've selected all of them and delete. 4:45

Holding down command on a Mac or 4:48

control on a PC, will allow you to jump to the next cell with data in it. 4:51

Holding on command, press left and it jumps to the next cell with that in it. 4:56

If you're already in the cell with that in it, 5:00

it will jump to the next cell before there is a cell with no data in it. 5:02

So now I'm going to hold down command and press up, 5:05

and you can see that it stopped at 480 right before there's a blank. 5:07

What happens here, I press down command, 5:12

I press right, it takes to the end of this spreadsheet. 5:14

Hold down command I press left, takes me to the beginning of the spreadsheet. 5:17

Holding down command I press down, it takes me to 6, 5:20

I press down again while holding command it takes me to the 5. 5:23

So you can see if you're working with a big spreadsheet, 5:26

instead of having to scroll. 5:29

In different directions by using the command or control on your arrows, 5:32

you can jump around pretty quickly. 5:35

Now, if we combine Shift+Cmd, 5:38

you can see how it will speed up your workflow rather quickly. 5:40

So before when I was showing the Shift example, I would hold down Shift and 5:44

then do this. 5:47

But, if I hold down Shift+Cmd then press down, 5:49

I've selected all of them very quickly. 5:53

Now, look how much faster this is than using my mouse. 5:56

With my mouse, I have to go move my hand over to the mouse, and 5:59

then I have to select all of them. 6:02

But, with my keyboard shortcuts, I can just hold down two keys and press down. 6:05

And I've done it much more quickly. 6:11

You can see how this can save you a lot of time, 6:14

when you're working with a large spreadsheet. 6:16

And would also help you when you're selecting data to sort. 6:19

The last shortcuts we'll talk about in this video, are Undo and Redo. 6:22

Cmd+Z or Ctrl+Z if you're in a PC, allows you to undo an action you've just done. 6:26

So here I'm going to use Shift+Cmd and press down. 6:32

And then up one time because I don't want that bottom row. 6:36

I'm going to press Cmd+C to copy. 6:39

And I'm going to press Cmd+V to paste. 6:42

But, maybe I didn't want to paste those there, so I want to Undo what I just did. 6:45

I could go up here to Edit, and do Undo there. 6:50

But, the much faster thing to do would be Cmd or 6:52

Ctrl+Z, and it undo's the action I just took. 6:56

If you want to Redo something. 7:00

You can press Cmd+Y, and it's back. 7:02

Cmd+Z, Cmd+Y. 7:04

Cmd+Z, Cmd+Y. 7:06

Now interestingly, this can go for multiple steps. 7:08

So, let's start over here just to make it simple. 7:12

I've deleted that, now I'm selecting these cells. 7:17

I'm going to paste them, paste them, paste them, paste them. 7:22

Now I can press Cmd+Z once, twice, again and again, and 7:27

redo works the same way, redo, redo, redo, redo. 7:33

So, just remember that you can go multiple steps forward or backwards, 7:37

by using Redo and Undo. 7:41

Those are some of the basic keyboard shortcuts that you should 7:44

start building into your work flow. 7:47

As you start to use spreadsheets more, 7:49

pay attention to places where you can use keyboard shortcuts and practice them. 7:51

See the teacher's notes for links to keyboard shortcut documentation, for 7:56

both Google Sheets and Excel. 8:00

You should explore these, and work towards mastering keyboard shortcuts. 8:01

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