--- title: Excel - Never use the mouse date: "2005-11-01T12:00:00Z" categories: - excel-tips wp_id: 513 --- I spend a lot of time building models on Excel. I have 4 rules that help me get things done fast. 1. **Never use the mouse**. The keyboard is much faster. 2. **Never type in data**. You can always import it. 3. Avoid manual labour. Use Excel to **automate the task**. 4. Make your data **visually obvious.** Let's look at **Rule #1: Never use the mouse.** **Using the keyboard can be 10 times faster than the mouse**. It takes time to move one hand from the keyboard to the mouse, locate the item you want to click at, move the mouse there, adjust it finely so it's pointing at the exact spot, and then click it. For example, to insert text without formatting, I'd just go Alt-E, S, enter. It takes half a second. It took me 5 seconds with a mouse. (I timed 10 continuous attempts in both cases.) A factor of 10 speed advantage like that is good for two reasons: **it saves you time, and it doesn't distract you** from what you're doing (provided the keyboard shortcuts have become a habit.) **For newbies**: To use menus using keyboard shortcuts, first go to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Display - Appearance tab - Effects button - Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key. Make sure it is turned off. To use a menu, let's say "Insert - Row". **look for the underlined letter** on the menu bar (the "I" on "Insert"), **press Alt and the underlined letter** (Alt-I in this case), and **look for the underlined letter** on the next menu item ("R" on the "Rows" in this case) and press that letter. So, Alt-I-R is the shortcut to insert a row. Now, just practice Alt-I-R, Alt-I-R, Alt-I-R repeatedly. Shortcuts next to the menu are quicker, where they exist. For example, the Ctrl-C next to the Edit-Copy menu. Apart from the arrow keys, Ctrl-S, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, the keys I use frequently are: - **F2**: edit the current cell - **F4**: repeat the last action (very useful) - **Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-Y**: Undo, Redo - **Ctrl-1**: Format cells - **Ctrl-Shift-down arrow**: Select all filled cells below selection (also works with other arrow keys) - **Ctrl-PgUp/PgDn**: Shift between tabs - **Ctrl-Home/End**: Go to top-left, or bottom-right of the sheet (or cell, if you're editing a cell) - **Ctrl-`**: Show formulae - **Shift-Space, Ctrl-Space**: Select row, select column - **Alt-Enter**: To create a new line while you're typing in a cell - **Alt-E-I-S-Enter**: Select a set of cells and fill a continuous series of numbers in it - **Alt-E-S-Enter**: Paste unformatted text - **Alt-D-G-G**: Group a set of rows (use Alt-D-G-U for ungroup) - **Alt-D-G-S**: Show a collapsed group (use Alt-D-G-H to collapse a group) - **Alt-O-D**: Conditional formatting - **Alt-F8**: Macros --- ## Comments - **bluski** _1 Nov 2005 12:00 pm_: wqo - **Nametest** _1 Nov 2005 12:00 pm_: Test - **Jayant** _3 Nov 2005 2:44 am_: Thanks Anand. Good set of tips. Ofcourse, one can always go to microsoft page and download the entire set of shortcuts. - **bluski** _8 Nov 2005 2:35 am_: rules 2,3,4?? - **bluski** _8 Nov 2005 2:36 am_: ignore the one above...just testing - **Aditya** _11 Nov 2005 5:40 am_: Good Post! Really useful. - **Sathish** _15 Nov 2005 5:56 pm_: How will this be displayed if I don't type my name? - **ANIA** _13 Feb 2007 8:33 am_: HOW TO CALUCATE SIMPLE INTEREST IN EXCEL?HELP ME - **vic** _8 Mar 2007 6:05 pm_: F4 seems to have changed! Used to be able to keep on pressing F4 multiple times to repeat. Now it only works once or twice. Why? - **E R Suresh Narain** _1 Nov 2005 12:00 pm_: very useful - **afreen** _1 Nov 2005 12:00 pm_: how to arrange all cells alphabetically without modify any thing , like date ,amount & other things For e.g. Dt Party name Amount 12.03.08 Tema 2000 13.03.08 L& T 6000 It is arrange alphabetically Party wise - **yowan** _2 Jan 2009 9:17 am_: thanks for the excel tips and song search engine - **Subramanian S** _30 Mar 2009 5:50 am_: VEry useful tips Anand. Helps me a lot at work. - **Payal** _22 Sep 2009 12:21 pm_: Hey can any1 help me with how to go to other spreadsheet (ie. from sheet1 to sheet 2) without the use of mouse? - **Ian** _17 Nov 2009 3:44 pm_: Change sheets with keyboard? Ctrl-Pgup/Ctrl-PgDn - **Kalevi** _26 Nov 2010 10:32 pm_: Shift+F8 allows you to select cells from different parts of the document. - **remove keys** _9 Mar 2011 7:08 pm_: remove the f1, caps, left windows keys. maybe numlock. - **Vinnie** _22 Aug 2012 8:52 pm_: I came up with article on citehr where they show how you can work without any formula. This was a good article How you can work in Excel without knowing any formulas 1. How to change CASE in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2JdQuybKjU&feature=plcp 2. How to Convert Columnar Data into Tabular Form http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbHh41qMsHQ&feature=plcp 3. How to COLOUR Duplicate Rows in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRckmKTRbYE&feature=plcp 4. How to Change UPPER & lower Case in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ6Ud8MgrfY&feature=plcp 5. How to Remove all DUPLICATES in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh-8D\_AklwM&feature=plcp 6. How to REMOVE Extra SPACES in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7lh1tX7EeY&feature=plcp 7. How to Remove NUMBERS & ALPHABETS in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMj89gqizzA&feature=plcp 8. How to CLEAN Data in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhFroHy8tqw&feature=plcp Hope this helps and this is from a tool from http://exceladdins.net - **J.V.SSUBBARAO** _26 Oct 2012 7:39 am_: Dragging The lines of Tables margins without mouse support - **Laura** _2 Feb 2013 12:18 am_: For the new Excel 2010, how do we create and modify a Pivot table without using the mouse? We know that we hit ALT + D, P to get the Pivot table and then select through the Pivot wizard. However, once the pivot is created and becomes time to select the criteria, we cannot figure out how to get onto the selection panel without using a mouse. Suggestions? - **[Saleem Ullah](http://excel.com)** _18 Dec 2015 11:30 am_: how can i coloured a text in excel without touching the keyboard.... plz resolve my problem thanks - **[Saleem Ullah](http://excel.com)** _18 Dec 2015 11:31 am_: plz ignore my first mail, how can i coloured a text in excel without touching the mouse…. plz resolve my problem Thanks - **Jennifer** _6 Feb 2018 9:51 pm_: Thanks for the useful tips! - **Pranav Sukumaran** _9 Apr 2017 7:15 am_: Usefulllllllll - **Abhik** _17 May 2016 5:33 am_: How Draw Formula With out mouse