A platform that is frequently used by every marketer is Microsoft Excel. This platform is helpful to marketers in a variety of ways with the core purpose of pairing up and analyzing data points from various analytics and marketing platforms. It is an extremely powerful tool and tends to be the most utilized platform for daily data analysis work. With the amount of analysis that is done within Excel, you would think that the majority of marketers would learn keyboard shortcuts and tricks to reduce their manual work, but surprisingly enough, only a small subset of users ever use these shortcuts to improve productivity. The purpose of the following list is to teach the novice segment of Excel users a few useful keyboard shortcuts and tricks that can be applied to daily spreadsheet work and cut down on the manual work that is needed to analyze data. Ultimately the value that you will get from this list comes with developing a habit, so make sure that you try to conceptualize a use case for each shortcut and then force yourself to use that shortcut whenever you run into work that fits the specific use case.
1) Toggle Absolute/Relative Reference
Freezes your cell, row or column. The first time you use the shortcut you will freeze the cell, then the row and finally the column.
Windows - F4
Mac - Cmd + T
2) Fill Highlighted Cells
Select a range of cells and fill in the selected cells with values from left to right. This works regardless of your row and column selection.
Windows - Highlight Cells and Hit Enter
Mac - Highlight Cells and Hit Enter
3) Number Formatting
Format your cell(s) in various number formats.
Windows - Currency = Ctrl + Shift + $ | Percentage = Ctrl + Shift + % | Date = Ctrl + Shift + # | Time = Ctrl + Shift + @ | Number = Ctrl + Shift + !
Mac - Currency = Ctrl + Shift + $ | Percentage = Ctrl + Shift + % | Date = Ctrl + Shift + # | Time = Ctrl + Shift + @ | Number = Ctrl + Shift + !
4) Auto-Sum Cells
Sum a group of cells.
Windows - == Alt + = ==
Mac - == Cmd + Shift + T ==
5) Date Fill Formatting
Fill the selected cells based on the step value (increments of days, months or years).
Windows - == Highlight Cells and Click on the Ribbon ==
Mac - == Highlight Cells and Click on the Ribbon ==
6) Paste Special
Select the formatting that should be applied to the cell(s) from the pasted clipboard.
Windows - == Ctrl + Alt + V ==
Mac - == Ctrl + Cmd + V ==
7) Format Window
Open the cell format window.
Windows - == Ctrl + 1 ==
Mac - == Cmd + 1 ==
8) Toggle Auto-Filter
Toggle the Auto-Filter function to hide/show cell(s) based on the filter criteria.
Windows - == Ctrl + Shift + L ==
Mac - == Cmd + Shift + F ==
9) Insert Table
Insert a table for a selected group of cells.
Windows - == Ctrl + T ==
Mac - == Cmd + Shift + F ==
10) Reveal Formulas
Show/hide the formulas being used to calculate each cell
Windows - == Ctrl + ` ==
Mac - == Cmd + ` ==
