Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Quickly Entering Data.
One of the nifty shortcuts provided in Excel allows you to copy data from the cell above the current cell. All you need to do is press Ctrl+". (That's a quote mark, which means you must hold down the Shift key as well.)
As an example of how this works, let's suppose you enter the number 12345 in cell A4. If you then move to cell A5 and press Ctrl+", 12345 appears in the cell. If you then go to cell A6 and type ABC and press Ctrl+", you end up with ABC12345 in the cell.
In reality, you could also use Ctrl+' (that's an apostrophe) to copy data if you wanted. There is only a slight difference in the way that Ctrl+' and Ctrl+" work, and that difference only applies when using the shortcuts to copy numeric values (including dates and times). The Ctrl+" shortcut retains the formatting of whatever is being copied, but the Ctrl+' shortcut does not.
As an example, let's assume that cell A5 contains the formatted value 12.34%. If you position the cursor in cell A6 and press Ctrl+", then Excel copies 12.34%. If, instead, you use Ctrl+' then Excel copies 0.1234.
These shortcuts can be real handy when you are entering data that has a lot of similarities within it—perhaps inventory numbers or part numbers. Give it a try!
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2311) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Quickly Entering Data.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: 
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