If you just click with the mouse once per minute, that’s 480 times are a business day! If you click every second, it’s 28,800 clicks a day.
We – who works 8 hours a day with computer – are somewhere on this scale.
Mostly we click because we want to see the mouse at a given point and it’s easier to point out. (Surprisingly, this is the reason why the mouse was developed).
That’s why the most important and most difficult step is to learn changing position without mouse.
Move without mouse, use the navigation arrows!
In Excel, the easiest way to select cells is by the navigation arrow keys: there are right / left / up / down arrows.
You obviously know that, but you don’t use them enough! So start to watch yourself, and if you catch yourself on a click, use the arrows at least one step back and forth, to make yourself aware of the situation and remember the “new” arrow keys.
Of course, you don’t have to go on for larger distances one by one! You can speed up the arrows with the Ctrl key! This will look up the last filled cell in the given direction, for example the Ctrl ↓ shortcut (in column A) goes down to the last line in the table, or Ctrl → goes to the last column.
In the case of empty cells, the Ctrl arrow shortcut looks for the next filled cell. If there is only a small amount of data in a column, use Ctrl ↓ to quickly “run over” them.
After the last filled cell, press Ctrl ↓ again, and you will find the last line in Excel (1.048.576). Press Ctrl → and you are in cell XFD1048576, which is the last cell of Excel.
You can return to A1 at any time with the Ctrl Home combination.
Select cells
To select cells, press the Shift key. You can increase or decrease the selected area, depending on the arrow direction.
If you start from A1, Shift → will select B1, C1, D1 as well, then Shift ← goes back to C1, B1. Try it, and you will see.
If you press Ctrl Shift ↓, it will select the data in the column.
Examples
Select the first record of the table: Start point B2, Ctrl Shift →
If you need to expand it down too: Ctrl Shift ↓
Copy the first record of the table to the bottom of the table:
Start point B2, Ctrl Shift → selects the first line. Copy with Ctrl C.
Then Ctrl ↓ jumps to the last line in the table, and then simple ↓ goes to the next empty line. You can press Ctrl V here.
Today’s challenge
Pay attention to using the navigation arrows instead of the mouse. Of course, at the beginning this is very difficult, so be persistent!
With hotkeys, especially with the navigation keys, you can save a lot of time. Because you can jump quickly in the spreadsheet, then continue typing the numbers and formulas.