A lot of analysts swear strong allegiance to keyboard shortcuts. But when it comes to formatting a spreadsheet, these shortcuts go for a toss as formatting is a mouse-heavy activity.
But we can use a few simple & effective shortcuts to zip through various day to day formatting tasks. Let me share my favorite formatting shortcuts.
1. CTRL+1 – Format anything
This universal shortcut is powerful and very easy to memorize. Select anything (cells, chart objects, drawing shapes, pictures etc.) and press CTRL+1 to instantly launch format dialog box.
2. ALT EST (or ALT HVE) – Format painter
If you want to copy the formatting from one thing to another (like formatting of a bunch of cells to another range, a chart to another chart), you can use Format painter. Simply copy the original object (CTRL+C), select the target object and press ALT+EST (one key after another). You may also use ALT+HVE (again one key after another) in all modern versions of Excel.
3. ALT HH – Fill color
Now comes the tricky one. If you want to fill some color in a chart object, drawing shape, cell or something else, you can select it, press ALT HH. This activates the fill color box. Here, you can use arrow keys to select the color you want and press enter to fill it.
4. ALT HFC – Font color
This is same as above. FC is a short for Font Color. Press they keys one after another and the font color box opens up. Just use arrow keys to pick the color you want and press enter.
5. F4 – Repeat last action
Let’s say you want to fill yellow color in a bunch of cells. But these cells are not together. So you to the first one, press ALT HH and fill yellow color. Now, you go to the second cell. Will you press ALT HH again? No silly, you just press F4. This fills yellow color in the second cell (and all other subsequent cells) for you.
The F4 key works great when formatting charts too. You can format one series (or chart element the way you want), select other items and press F4.
6. Alt key, for everything else
Anything that is on ribbon in Excel can be accessed with ALT key and a sequence of letters/numbers. For example, if you wanted to send a few drawing shapes to back, you can use the sequence – ALT PAEB
Of course, there is no point memorizing such sequences. Instead, you can look at ribbon while pressing the ALT key and learn the shortcuts on the go. See this demo:
What are your favorite formatting shortucts?
My favorites are CTRL+1, ALT EST & F4. I use them almost every time I format something.
What about you? How do you format faster? Please share your tips & shortcuts in the comments box.
Want more formatting? Check out these tips
If you are formatting is slow & sluggish, boost it with below tips.
One Response to “SQL vs. Power Query – The Ultimate Comparison”
Enjoyed your SQL / Power Query podcast (A LOT). I've used SQL a little longer than Chandoo. Power Query not so much.
Today I still use SQL & VBA for my "go to" applications. While I don't pull billions of rows, I do pull millions. I agree with Chandoo about Power Query (PQ) lack of performance. I've tried to benchmark PQ to SQL and I find that a well written SQL will work much faster. Like mentioned in the podcast, my similar conclusion is that SQL is doing the filtering on the server while PQ is pulling data into the local computer and then filtering the data. I've heard about PQ query folding but I still prefer SQL.
My typical excel application will use SQL to pull data from an Enterprise DB. I load data into Structured Tables and/or Excel Power Pivot (especially if there's lot of data).
I like to have a Control Worksheet to enter parameters, display error messages and have user buttons to execute VBA. I use VBA to build/edit parameters used in the SQL. Sometimes I use parameter-based SQL. Sometimes I create a custom SQL String in a hidden worksheet that I then pull into VBA code (these may build a string of comma separated values that's used with a SQL include). Another SQL trick I like to do is tag my data with a YY-MM, YY-QTR, or YY-Week field constructed form a Transaction Date.
In an application, I like to create a dashboard(s) that may contain hyperlinks that allow the end-user to drill into data. Sometimes the hyperlink will point to worksheet and sometimes to a supporting workbook. In some cases, I use a double click VBA Macro that will pull additional data and direct the user to a supplemental worksheet or pivot table.
In recent years I like Dynamic Formulas & Lambda Functions. I find this preferable to pivot tales and slicers. I like to use a Lambda in conjunction with a cube formula to pull data from a power pivot data model. I.E. a Lambda using a cube formula to aggregate Accounting Data by a general ledger account and financial period. Rather than present info in a power pivot table, you can use this combination to easily build financial reports in a format that's familiar to Accounting Professionals.
One thing that PQ does very well is consolidating data from separate files. In the old days this was always a pain.
I've found that using SQL can be very trying (even for someone with experience). It's largely an iterative process. Start simple then use Xlookup (old days Match/Index). Once you get the relationships correct you can then use SQL joins to construct a well behaved SQL statement.
Most professional enterprise systems offer a schema that's very valuable for constructing SQL statements. For any given enterprise system there's often a community of users that will share SQL. I.E. MS Great Plains was a great source (but I haven't used them in years).
Hope this long reply has value - keep up the good work.