Financial Modelling: Excel Shortcuts You Must Know

In the previous lesson, we learned about how to setup excel for productivity. We will now look at the important and commonly used shortcuts in excel that can speedup your financial modelling work.

General

  • F2 - Edit Cell
  • F4 - Repeat Last Action
  • Ctrl + Z - Undo Last Action
  • Ctrl + O - Open File
  • Ctrl + S - Save File
  • F12 - Save File As
  • F9 - Recalculate Workbook
  • Ctrl + ; - Insert Current Date

Selection

  • Ctrl + Arrowkey - Jump to Edge of Content
  • Ctrl + Spacebar - Select Column
  • Shift + Spacebar - Select Row
  • Alt + I + R - Insert Row
  • Alt + I + C - Insert Column
  • Alt + E + D - Delete Row / Column
  • Ctrl + G - Go To (Also with F5)
  • Shift + F11 - Insert Worksheet
  • Ctrl + Page-up / Page-down - Move to Next / Previous Worksheet Tab
  • Alt + E + L + M - Delete Worksheet
  • Alt + O + H + R - Rename Worksheet
  • Ctrl + 9 - Hide selected row
  • Ctrl + 0 - Hide selected column

Cell navigation shortcuts

  • CTRL + Arrow keys - Go to end of contiguous range
  • SHIFT + Arrow keys - Select a cell range
  • SHIFT + CTRL + Arrow keys - Highlight contiguous range
  • Home - Move to beginning of line
  • CTRL + Home - Move to cell “A1”
  • SHIFT + ENTER - Move to cell above
  • TAB - Move to cell to the right
  • SHIFT + TAB - Move to cell to the left
  • BACKSPACE - Delete cell and get inside
  • CTRL + ~ - Show formulas/values

Formatting

  • Ctrl + B - Bold
  • Ctrl + I - Italics
  • Ctrl + U - Underline
  • Alt + E + S  - Paste Special
  • Ctrl + D - Copy Formula Down to Fill Selection
  • Ctrl + R - Copy Formula Right to Fill Selection
  • Ctrl + 1 - Open Formatting Dialogue
  • Ctrl + Shift + 1 - Autoformat Number Style
  • Ctrl + Shift + 2 - Autoformat Time Style
  • Ctrl + Shift + 3 - Autoformat Date Style
  • Ctrl + Shift + 4 - Autoformat Currency Style
  • Ctrl + Shift + 5 - Autoformat Percentage Style
  • Ctrl + Shift + 7 - Outline Cell
  • Ctrl + Shift + - - Remove Cell Border
  • Alt + O + C + A - Autoformat Column Width
  • Alt + O + R + A - Autoformat Row Height
  • Alt + D + E - Text to Columns
  • Alt + D + F + F - Filter Data
  • Alt + D + S - Sort Data
  • Alt + O + D - Conditional Formatting
  • CTRL+SHIFT+$  Apply currency format to the selected cells

Data Manipulation

  • Ctrl + F3 - Name Cell
  • Alt + D + G + G - Group Rows / Columns
  • Alt + D + G + U - Ungroup Rows / Columns
  • Alt + D + G + H - Hide Grouped Rows / Columns
  • Alt + D + G + S - Show Grouped Rows / Columns
  • Alt + = - Autosum Adjacent Cells

Tables

  • Alt + D + P - Open Pivot Table Wizard
  • Alt + D + S - Create Data Table

Auditing

  • ALT + M + P - Trace immediate precedents
  • ALT + M + D - Trace immediate dependents
  • ALT + M + A + A - Remove tracing arrows
  • ALT + M + V - Evaluate formula
  • ALT + R + G - Track changes
  • ALT + W + G - Zoom to selection
  • CTRL + [ - Go to precedent cells
  • CTRL + ] - Go to dependent cells
  • F5 + Enter - Go back to original cell

More Shortcuts

  • Alt + Shift + ` - Show All Formulae
  • Alt + W + F + F - Freeze Panes Around Current Cell
  • Alt + T + M + R - Start / Stop Recording Macro
  • Alt + T + M + M - Show Macros

Please share any shortcuts you generally use while using excel.

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