Nothing beats those Excel shortcuts!

Finance pros have a love-hate relationship with using Excel. 

On the one hand, spreadsheets are a necessary evil that you can’t get away from.

The downside: Finance pros wish it was a lot easier to master the features and “shortcuts” in Excel.

There are so many valuable shortcuts that some of these may not apply to each and every Accounting department out there. But hopefully one or more of these seven less-known shortcuts can be a help to your staffers.

(Note: These shortcuts may not work in all versions of Excel.) 

1. Insert sum: Select the bottom cell in a column of numbers, then press Alt + the equal sign.

2. Select an entire column: Click on a cell, then press Ctrl + the space bar.

3. Navigate to top: Press Ctrl + Home to return to the first cell on the first page of a spreadsheet.

4. Hide data: Select the column you want to hide, then press Ctrl + the zero key.

5. Delete a cell: Press Alt + E + D.

6. Add the date: Press Ctrl + the semicolon key.

7. Show formulas: Press Ctrl + the tilde key (~) to see all formulas.

Try these ‘double-click’ shortcuts in Excel

Using your mouse, these double-clicking tricks in Microsoft Excel are big productivity boosters:

• To adjust row or column height, select multiple columns and double-click the separators.

• Double-click on empty space in the toolbar area to open Customize window.

• Double-click on the Office logo to close Excel.

• To auto-fill a series of cells with data or formulas, double-click in the bottom right corner of the cell.

• Jump to the last row/column by selecting any cell, and double-clicking in the corner of the direction you want to go.

• Double-click in the corner above the scroll bar to include a split, allowing you to look at two different things at once.

For more on Excel time-savers, click here.