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MS Office 101

Date And Time Keyboard Shortcuts

If you're someone who frequently inserts the current date and/or time into your MS Word documents or PowerPoint presentations, here's a keyboard shortcut for you.

In MS Word, you can press Alt+Shift+D to insert the current date and Alt+Shift+T to insert the current time.

In MS PowerPoint, if you press either combination, you'll get a window that looks like this:

Now you're free to pick the data you need in the format you desire from the list. Then press the Enter key.

What more could we ask for? Time and dates at our fingertips…no mouse needed.

Office Tip of the Day

Could You Repeat That Please?

Here's a tip sent in by a reader. It's a great keyboard shortcut for repetitive tasks.

I tested it and found that it works great in MS Word and Excel. I also tried it in PowerPoint with very limited success and had no luck in MS Outlook and Outlook Express.

At any rate, in Word and Excel this one could be a huge time saver.

The trick is all in one key - the F4 key.

The F4 key is set to repeat the last action.

Literally, if you simply hit F4 the program will repeat the last action you completed. That's it - it really is that simple.

Ideas for MS Excel:

Let's say, for example, you've just inserted a row or column in Excel using the Insert menu. If you then hit F4, you'll get a second row or column inserted without all the menu work.

Or, with that same example (inserting a row or column), you could move to another part of the worksheet, hit F4 and have a new row or column inserted in the new location.

Repeatedly hitting the F4 key will continue to repeat the last action, allowing you to insert multiple rows or columns quickly and efficiently.

I found I could get this little trick to work with almost any action I used: bolding, underlining, cell format type, justification, etc…

Ideas for MS Word:

In Word, I found this one to work extremely well. I was able to get the F4 key to repeat text formatting, line spacing, text color changes, indenting, font changes, etc…

I even found that I could get the repetition of a "just-typed" phrase or sentence in Word. Much quicker than the old copy and paste routine I often find myself using when I have repetitive statements to make.

(Actually, I could use it a lot when writing this newsletter. Often I find myself creating lists of shortcuts where they are so similar I copy/paste and then just change the relevant info to make my next point. This will really speed up the process.)

Bonus Idea:

I also tried this one with the drawing tools and found that it was an excellent way to repeat things without needing the buttons and menus constantly. I found that the F4 key would duplicate a newly drawn shape, repeat a fill color change in a newly selected shape, change line size and color, whatever.

The key thing to remember is that it repeats the LAST action. So, if you last drew a circle then it will immediately draw a duplicate circle. If you just changed the format of a cell to be percentages then it will change the format of the next cell(s) you select to percentages. Get the idea?

Yeah, I knew you would.

Give this one a try. It's really a great trick with tremendous potential.

Thanks for the tip, Lew!

~ April