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excelisfun - Excel Basics 7: Keyboard Shortcuts Are Fast!

Thumbnail of the video “excelisfun - Excel Basics 7: Keyboard Shortcuts Are Fast!”
Community upload. AI output has not been independently verified.
Author: excelisfun
Categories: Science Technology
Tags: science, technology
Views: 2 · Last viewed: 2026-10-16 00:54 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: Learn and use Excel keyboard shortcuts because they are faster than mouse-based navigation and formatting for tasks like jumping through data, highlighting ranges, formatting, and building formulas. The video demonstrates these shortcuts in a sample workbook, and notes that most were covered in earlier videos.

Key Points

  • The video is the seventh in the Excel Basics series, presented by excelisfun, with the stated premise that keyboard shortcuts are fast.
  • Control + Arrow keys jump to the edge of a data region, and Control + Shift + Arrow keys highlight the same range.
  • Alt-key shortcuts work by pressing Alt, releasing it, then pressing the number assigned to a Quick Access Toolbar button, so arranging frequently used buttons at the front of the toolbar makes them faster to reach.
  • The SUM function is the only one of about 450 Excel functions with a dedicated keyboard shortcut (Alt + =, held together).
  • Shortcuts can be used during formula creation to insert ranges and to return to the active cell, which speeds up building formulas like SUMIFS.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions:
    • Jump to the bottom of a data set: select the top cell and press Control + Down Arrow. It stops above the first empty cell; press it again to reach the bottom of the spreadsheet.
    • Return to cell A1: press Control + Home.
    • Highlight a column down to the bottom: press Control + Shift + Down Arrow. The same pattern works with Left, Right, and Up arrows.
    • Return to the active cell at the top of a highlighted range: press Control + Backspace. This also works while building a formula.
    • Decrease decimals using a Quick Access Toolbar button: press Alt, release, press 1 (the decrease decimal button's position). Increase decimals is Alt, then 2. These are succession keys, pressed one after another.
    • Highlight the whole table: use the number pad Asterisk (Control + Asterisk), which he prefers over Control + A because it works better with the macro recorder in advanced Excel. On a standard keyboard without a number pad, use Control + Shift + 8.
    • Insert the SUM function: press Alt + = (hold both keys together).
    • Insert a range into a formula mid-typing: press Control + Shift + Down Arrow, then Control + Backspace to return to the active cell, then Enter.
    • Lock a cell reference for copying: press F4 to add dollar signs (absolute reference).
    • Enter a formula and keep the cell selected: press Control + Enter. Then double-click the fill handle to copy the formula down.
    • Verify copied formulas: jump to the bottom with Control + Down Arrow, then press F2 to enter edit mode and check the formula before pressing Enter.
    • Other shortcuts mentioned: Alt, V (insert a pivot table, covered in the last video); Alt, P, S, P (open Page Setup).
  • The SUMIFS example builds a daily sales report: choose the function by typing =SUMIFS and selecting it with the Down Arrow, press Tab to insert it, highlight the sum range, lock it with F4, then set criteria range 1 to the full date column (also locked) and the criteria to the adjacent cell.
  • The speaker notes that the shortcuts shown are mostly already familiar from earlier videos.

Bottom Line

Memorizing a small core set of Excel shortcuts for navigation, highlighting, formula entry, and formatting is an efficient way to work faster and more accurately, especially when copying formulas.