Shortcut Keys

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Shortcut Keys' topic. Click the article's title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

A Shortcut for Switching Focus
While not technically an Excel-only tip, the shortcuts described in this tip will help you switch focus from your workbook to the Windows desktop. These shortcuts will make working in the Windows environment easier.

Canceling a Command
Need to cancel a command you've already started? It is as easy as pressing a single keystroke.

Changing Font Size Using a Shortcut Key
Want to adjust the font size used in a cell or range of cells? It's easy to do by using the shortcut described in this tip.

Closing All Open Workbooks
Excel provides a handy (but little-known) shortcut for closing all the workbooks you have open. This tip explains how easy it is to use this shortcut.

Defining Shortcut Keys for Symbols
When you use the Insert Symbol dialog box, you can insert any character or symbol it is possible to access in Excel. If you need to frequently insert a symbol, it can be a bother to always display the dialog box, however. This tip discusses some of the ways you can make inserting your symbols faster.

One Shortcut for Two Macros
Macros and the shortcuts used to invoke those macros are stored on a workbook-by-workbook basis. If you load two workbooks, each of which uses the same shortcut to run a macro, the results may seem unpredictable. This tip explains how Excel deals with the conflicting shortcuts and how you can work around the apparent conflict.

Quickly Inserting a New Worksheet
Want a quick way to insert a worksheet? There's nothing faster than using the handy shortcut.

Shortcut to Merge Cells
Merging cells is a common activity, so it is a little surprising that Excel doesn't include a shortcut for the task. You can, however, create your own shortcut using a macro, as described in this tip.