
Okay, this is a cop-out, but I have been busy and not-in-a-mood-for-writing in the last 2 days. (I don’t know, but I feel a bit low, may be it is all the snow around and constant work due to excel school and day job).
So, let us have an open thread on Excel Shortcuts. I will start by listing down all the excel keyboard shortcuts I use regularly,
- CTRL+1: open format dialog. I use this to set borders, fills, cell-formats, alignment etc.
- F4: while editing formulas, to change the type of cell reference from relative to absolute or semi-absolute.
- F4: to repeat last action, like adding rows or adjusting formats.
- ALT+ESV : Paste Special > Values only. I use this to paste values alone. Helps me remove formulas, formatting etc.
- CTRL+Arrow Keys: To navigate to last cell in a row, column, first cell in a row, column. These let me go where I want.
- F2: Edit a cell, places cursor at the end. Very easy to edit.
- ALT+Down arrow: Shows a small in-cell drop down with previously entered values, Useful when I am typing some data.
- CTRL+D: fills down.
- F9: When debugging formulas, I can select a portion of the formula and press F9 to see the result of that. VERY VERY Useful..
- SHIFT+F2: Add a comment or Edit comment. Useful to add cell-comments so that my colleagues can take note of certain cells.
- CTRL+B: Bold a cell’s content. Useful to add emphasis.
- ALT+EST: Works like format painter
Now your turn…
Please use comments and share the shortcuts you use on regular basis. Let us make this the biggest thread (and page) on excel short cuts…
Previously on keyboard shortcuts & mouse shortcuts.

















6 Responses to “Make VBA String Comparisons Case In-sensitive [Quick Tip]”
Another way to test if Target.Value equal a string constant without regard to letter casing is to use the StrCmp function...
If StrComp("yes", Target.Value, vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
' Do something
End If
That's a cool way to compare. i just converted my values to strings and used the above code to compare. worked nicely
Thanks!
In case that option just needs to be used for a single comparison, you could use
If InStr(1, "yes", Target.Value, vbTextCompare) Then
'do something
End If
as well.
Nice tip, thanks! I never even thought to think there might be an easier way.
Regarding Chronology of VB in general, the Option Compare pragma appears at the very beginning of VB, way before classes and objects arrive (with VB6 - around 2000).
Today StrComp() and InStr() function offers a more local way to compare, fully object, thus more consistent with object programming (even if VB is still interpreted).
My only question here is : "what if you want to binary compare locally with re-entering functions or concurrency (with events) ?". This will lead to a real nightmare and probably a big nasty mess to debug.
By the way, congrats for you Millions/month visits 🙂
This is nice article.
I used these examples to help my understanding. Even Instr is similar to Find but it can be case sensitive and also case insensitive.
Hope the examples below help.
Public Sub CaseSensitive2()
If InStr(1, "Look in this string", "look", vbBinaryCompare) = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub
Public Sub CaseSensitive()
If InStr("Look in this string", "look") = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub
Public Sub NotCaseSensitive()
'doing alot of case insensitive searching and whatnot, you can put Option Compare Text
If InStr(1, "Look in this string", "look", vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub