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.
22 Responses to “Master Excel 2007 Ribbon with this Free Learning Guide”
Thank you, kind sir. Well done with the baby making.
I cannot get signed up for your newsletter. I tied both this email address and churchill2001@hotmail.com. never a response.
I cannot get signed up for your newsletter. I tied both this email address and churchill2001_at_hotmail_dot_com. never a response for either attempt.
@Doug, it shows that your email address is pending verification. Can you check your inbox (and may be spam folder too) for an email from me? The subject will be "Activate Subscription to Get your Free Excel Tips E-book"
[...] PPS: If you are struggling with ribbon, you should check out ribbon learning guide. [...]
Very Useful Info..Keep it up..
@Ajay.. you are welcome 🙂
how do u download microsoft excel for free?
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
Select Office
Free Trial
[...] Excel 2010 UI looks considerably better and less stressful than 2007. The colors are dull and subtle. The icons don’t call for attention unless you want to do something. The menus / ribbons feel smoother and slicker. [Learn to use Excel Ribbon with this Free e-Book] [...]
I can't open this pdf. I get the error message:
You do not have the required license to open this file.
Please request a license from the creator of the file, and add it using the license manager and they try opening it again.
What gives??
I downloaded the file again and it worked this time. Strange. (First file was 116 KB, second was 1644 KB... ???)
[...] More ribbon goodness | Free e-book to learn Excel Ribbon [...]
Hi Chandoo,
thanks for sharing your Excel 2007 learning experience with us; unfortunately the link to the pdf of the free Excel 2007 learning guide seems broken: my Acrobate Readers flags: "Unkown file type or corrupte data".
Have a nice day
Michael
well done this is great
Can somebody just provide a link the classic TAB exportedUI files for MS Office 2003 for us to use in office 2007/2010?. searching online, everybody just wnats to make a buck online with silly Classic Tab installers which do nothing more than inport exportedUI files for you.
Don't give me a ribbon how to guide, just give me free exportedUI files. I should not have to pay anyone for this, it is free XML, MS should have included this to begin with.
thanks
Dear.
There are a set of debit values and a set ot credit values in a column. I want a vba code by whcich the debit value plus a single / multiple credit value is zero that needs to be marked .
finally i will come to know out of the avaibale debits which cannot be used the with avilable credits either single or multiple values.
If multiple matching sets are available let it take the 1st or the 2nd one its not an issue.
Column A Ref
-1000 A
-5000 B
-8000 C
800 A
100 A
100 A
2000 B
3000 B
13000
15000
hi...
how to make this add-ins and display in ribbon... check this sample : http://www.cprsoft.com/GCDemo01.htm
thank you sir...
Please tell me format painter short cut key In excel ?
Thanks In Advance
thankfully.likeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
I am very much happy for such a great opportunity given to excel learners to advance their skills for the betterment of the future. I am a great user of this site and feel proud to have come across this web site.
I appreciate this, because I didn't do much works in my project management studies using gantt chart. As of now are have now learned some advancement.