keyboard tricks that lowkey make life better
nerding out about my favourite microsoft suite shortcuts/techniques other than cntl+c cntl+v
I don’t know if this is a niche topic but it’s certainly an oddly specific one.
I’ve picked up a few nifty Microsoft Office shortcuts throughout my time at work, some of which I use so much it had become second nature; that when I use a Mac or Google Sheets or some software that doesn’t understand it — I feel stuck in glue.
These simple, furthest-thing-from-technical and furthest-thing-from-soft-skill shortcuts are little hacks that make me more efficiently and lowkey feel smarter than I am.
I run on the understanding that a lot of you run a desk job at some corporate or start-up or non-profit, and even if you don’t, you’re surely to use the Microsoft Suite in some way so here are some of my favourite shortcuts our common computerised tongue!
Excel: Control + Shift + L to put a filter
The most important use case of Excel for non-technical and non-accountants (I’m looking at you project managers) is filtering data.
Control + Shift + L is literally a shortcut for that.
It instantly puts a filter based on whatever you’re clicking and provides instant access to filter/sort your list based on, I don’t know: most expensive to least expensive / what department does line item relate to / sort by Red, Amber & Green.
It’s quick. It’s instantaneous. It’s independent of hitting Cntl + A (acceptable) and navigating to the ribbon tab.
There’s a saying that if you’re a pro with Excel, you’ll barely need to touch your mouse.
I’m not quite there yet, but I’m lowkey getting there, because frankly Excel is the backbone of financial services and the second language of an analytical position.
Word: Control + backspace
I’m a pretty speedy typist, but what makes an excellent typist isn’t how quickly or accurately you hit the keys, but your ability to recover from mistakes.
That’s where Cntl + backspace comes in, which works on Microsoft Word but pretty much any word processing platform. Cntl + backspace will backspace the entire previous word from your cursor.
When I type, I think of words as whole words instead of the letters that make them — as a result, I type words the same way that I type passwords where if I make mistake, I delete the whole word and start again.
As such, Cntl + backspace is my best friend as it rids an entire word instantly, clearing the state, clearing my mind, to give the big long word yet another try: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Excel: VLOOKUP + pivot table
I’m putting these two in the same category because it forms the core of data analytics in Excel, which by the way, Excel is a completely fine and actually amazing data analytics tool that has advantages unlike any other language or tool (mainly being tabular/graphical in nature and ease of use/high uptake).
And the technique that unlocks a massive slurry of Excel functionality is VLOOKUP cand the Pivot Table, especially when it comes to FP&A models, recurring reporting and ad-hoc checks.
Once you learn how a pivot table functions and how the ‘Values’ tab interacts, you are on your way to decipher pretty much any chunk of data.
Furthermore, one of the core processes in data analytics is mapping your data to the right categories and VLOOKUP is the Excel equivalent of doing so.
Master VLOOKUP. Master the Pivot Table. With that, you’ve pretty much mastered 80% of applied Excel.
Powerpoint: Align shapes + Group
Microsoft Powerpoint is both the most overrated and underappreciated applications in the Microsoft Office.
Overhyped in that holy shit why do investment bankers and consulting firms use it the way that they do… Why do executive leaders love it so much yet create the most atrocious slides known to mankind.
Underappreciated in that… it really is one of the best ways to deliver a report, especially one that is relatively non-technical but involves a lot of diagrams and charts.
In my opinion, what separates a mediocre data analyst and a good data analyst is their ability to turn data/charts into well-placed and effective slides — and what separates good data analysts to excellent data analysts is the ability to present them to an audience.
There are many cool PowerPoint functions but my favourite is Group + Align Shapes which makes resizing and readjusting slides a much more seamless process.
Note to self: Do a post on how PowerPoint is lowkey goated and actually forms the basis of what MBB/Big Four teach.
Excel: F4 (in Formula and in Field)
F4 is the strongest shortcut in Excel. It’s known for ‘locking’ cells in a formula or putting those dollar signs so that they don’t move around when you pull the formula. That doesn’t sound right written down by any Excel whizzes know exactly what I’m talking about.
This piece is not about that. It’s about pressing F4 when clicking a cell (not a formula), which is basically a ‘repeat last action’ button.
It can paste colours and formatting. It can paste a formula down. It can continue your insert row/column.
It’s literally an ‘again’ button — and when your work involves a lot of copying the same pattern over and over to create a financial model or projection of some sort, this is an absolute godsend.
This one’s a nice-to-have for sure, and a damn good one. F4!
Everything: learning how to touch type
And finally, not a shortcut whatsoever and in fact something fairly difficult to train, but something that results in an incredulous level of productivity.
Learning how to touch type is one of the strongest semi-technical skills you can have in an office environment.
I read somewhere that in the past, you had to pass a minimum typing speed before working as a data entry clerk. You still need a great speed to be a transcriber or minute-taker.
Having the ability to type without looking at the keyboard allows you to read something and type at the same time, let you take minutes effectively during a meeting, and plow through emails so much quicker than everbody else. It allows your fingers to keep up with your mind.
Disclaimer: I was born in 2000 which is more-or-less the generation that computers/keyboards were commonplace and touch screens were not quite so. I also had the unique advantage of growing up in a school that taught touch typing through games (Typing Tournament the goat) and grew up with both fanfiction.net/Wattpad as literary platforms and video games (including MMOs) as communication platforms.
I had all the tools necessary to excel in this, I’ll admit, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be learnt today — and it’s something that will pay dividends into the future.
reading list these last few days — some awesomework by
, and ❣
