J-Walk & Associates, Inc.

Accelerating Excel?

I found a page of keyboard shortcuts at the "Microsoft At Home" site: Save time with quick computer shortcuts.

As a new mom, Rachel Brown is always looking for ways to save time. "When I have the chance to sit down at my computer, I need to get at what I'm working on as quickly as possible," says Brown, who uses her computer to keep in touch with family and friends. Brown discovered the power of shortcuts and keystrokes while she was still working.

Of course I jumped directly to the Excel section to see how a new mother can save time with her spreadsheets: Accelerating Excel.

Here's her list of time-saving shortcuts:

Interestingly, the first three are wrong.

• Tab moves left to right, unless your workbook uses the "right-to-left" setting.
• Enter can move the cell pointer down or up (but not both) -- and only if the "move selection" option is set. The first thing I do when installing Excel is turn that off.
• Backspace erases the data, but it leaves the cursor in the cell. Using the Del key will save you lots of time.

The article ends with a final bit of advice for working at home:

Have the Help Line numbers for all the products you use nearby. "At work you rely on your IT person to solve problems that come up, but at home you need to fix these on your own and those phone numbers become extremely useful.

Yeah, right.