In the 6th session of Chandoo.org podcast, we focus on making you a better analyst.
Before we proceed in to the session, let me remind you:
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What is in this session?
One of the most popular questions I get, goes like this:
I recently became an analyst. I want to succeed in my work. How do I go about it?
So in this episode, lets explore the road map to becoming a better analyst.
In this podcast, you will learn,
- Announcement about Easter Egg hunt
- Why become a better analyst?
- The road map for becoming a better analyst – BETTER framework
- B for Business Knowledge
- E for Examining user needs
- T for Thinking about analysis
- T for Tools of Trade ie Excel
- E for Expression
- R for Refining yourself
- Conclusions
See the mind-map aside (click on it to expand) to understand the BETTER framework.
Go ahead and listen to the show
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Links & Resources mentioned in this session:
Easter Egg Hunt:
Courses mentioned:
Case Studies
Resources to learn Excel
- Functions
- Understanding Data
- Excel Tables
- Ad-hoc Analysis Tools in Excel
- Pivot Tables
- Filters
- Slicers
- Charting & Reporting
- Automation & VBA
Making Interactive Charts in Excel
Spreadsheet Errors & Auditing
- Handling Errors in Spreadsheets
- Using IFERROR function
- Spreadsheet Auditing & Risk Management – 4 part article
- Go to Special – your best friend for spreadsheet auditing
Transcript of this session:
Download this podcast transcript [PDF]
Are you becoming better analyst?
As a CEO of a small company, most of my time is spent on analysis & decision making. So I am always looking for ways to improve my skills.
What about you? How do you become better at your job. Please share your tips, ideas & inspiration in the comments.
8 Responses to “Top 5 keyboard shortcuts for Excel Charts”
As far as I remember (checked, again, 2 minutes ago) in my "Excel 2013" in order to select various chart elements I need to use the Arrow keys and not the TAB key.
Practically, the TAB key does nothing (within a Chart).
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Michael (Micky) Avidan
Thanks for pointing this out. This is how I remember it too, but when I was recording the video yesterday, only TAB key worked. MS must have changed the keys in Excel 2016. I have edited the post to include both keys.
The key navigation on charts is different in 2016.
TAB cycles through a layer of objects (SHIFT+TAB cycles backwards)
ENTER move down a layer
ESC moves up a layer
So on a column chart with title/legend/data labels if you select the plotarea the TAB will go through Title > Legend > Plotarea.
ENTER at plotarea will then select Vertical axis. Tab will take you through
Horizontal axis > gridlines > Series > Horizontal Axis.
ENTER with series selected will then allow you to TAB through individual data points and data labels.
If you ENTER on datalabels you can TAB through each data label.
ALT + F1 : to create default chart
ALT+E S T = CTRL + ALT + V, T : I find that easier to remember
I second what Michael already said about TAB and arrow keys. I can't help but think if this is related to the "," or ";" as separator. I prefer to use the chart tools - layout- drop down box, anyway.
Got to be F11 for instant charting. Highlight your data , hit F11 and voila! ?
Ctrl+1 is the most important chart shortcut. In fact, it works for any Excel object: whatever is selected, Ctrl+1 opens the task pane or dialog to format that object.
Somewhere along the line, maybe when Excel 2016 came out, the arrow keys stopped working to cycle through the elements of a chart. But what works is holding Ctrl while clicking the arrow keys. I haven't gotten used to the Tab and other keys, but as long as Ctrl+Arrow works, I'm good.
And F4 used to be so helpful when formatting a lot of charts. But since Excel 2007 came out, it has been mostly useless. It used to remember a whole set of changes at once, so I get that the newer modeless dialogs make that impractical. But now it only seems to work with formatting of lines and borders, and maybe fills. I find myself writing a lot of VBA one-liners in the Immediate Window to handle these tedious formatting tasks.
after clicking on a chart, is there a shortcut key to copy it?
Thank you for the Alt E S T - tip. This is more than a time saver. Because of dynamic charts or de-activated external references to data when you make the charts, you often have empty charts that are otherwise impossible to format. So this shortcut helps adressing that. I will work with it more and see if there remain some obstacles.