Tip #3842 - Mouseless Cell Formatting
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Mouseless
Cell Formatting
So, you're working
in MS Excel and you've got some cells to format. What do you do?
Oh, wait. I know!
You highlight the
cell(s) to be formatted and then use the Format menu, Cells choice (or
Ctrl + 1) to open the Format Cells window. This is followed by some "quality
mouse time" spent scrolling through the choices until you find the
right format.
What was that you
said?
What about the formatting
buttons on the Formatting toolbar?
Yep, I agree. The
buttons can save a lot of time if they cover the formatting you're looking
to create. But, what about a few key combinations to get some of the more
common formatting changes done just a little bit faster?
Interested?
Yeah, I thought you
might be, so here's a short list you can "take a test drive"
with.
First, highlight
the cell(s) to be formatted. (Don't forget that the Shift key
combined with directional keys, such as Home, End and the arrows, will
highlight cells without the aid of the mouse).
Cells highlighted?
Good! Then let's get
to the list.
- Ctrl +
Shift + ! will change 50 into the Number format of 50.00.
- Ctrl +
Shift + $ will change 50 into the Currency format of $50.00.
- Ctrl +
Shift + % will change .75 to the Percent format of 75%.
- Ctrl +
Shift + @ will change 15:45 into the Time format of 3:45 PM.
- Ctrl +
Shift + # will change 11/4/2004 into the Date format of 4-Nov-04.
Give these a try.
Once you've used them a few times, you'll find that they're pretty easy
to remember.
Maybe you can even
leave your mouse feeling a bit neglected!
~ April
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