20 little-known keyboard shortcuts to help you work smarter in Office 365 apps
With the latest versions of Office 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Microsoft has added keyboard shortcuts that streamline your workflow and make you more productive when using Office on your PC or Mac. But there are hundreds of keyboard shortcuts to learn, so where do you start? We’ve rounded up 20 useful commands and keyboard shortcuts that can help you work smarter in Office 365 apps whether you’re writing reports or giving presentations at work, or doing homework as a student. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to get to know these handy keyboard shortcuts and start working smarter!
File Tab
* Open any file by typing the first few letters of its name and then pressing the Tab key. For example, type sales and then press Tab to list all sales reports. Pressing Enter will open the selected file. * Navigate within a document with the arrow keys on your keyboard. Page up or page down will scroll through your document one page at a time, while Home and End will take you to the top or bottom of the document respectively.
View Tab
So, what are these hotkeys and why should you care?
Well, they can save you a lot of time by cutting the time it takes to complete a task. Plus, they’re often simpler than using a mouse or touchpad. For example, instead of right clicking on an email in Outlook and then selecting Mark as Read from the list of options that appears, all you have to do is hit ctrl+alt+1.
Home Tab
The Home tab is a great place to start when using Word, PowerPoint or OneNote. If your cursor is not currently located on the screen, it will be highlighted with a small white rectangle. Clicking anywhere on the screen will make that spot your new location for working. To find what you need quickly and easily, use the Home Tab’s drop-down menus
Insert Tab
Many people know that Ctrl+C copies text, Ctrl+V pastes it, and Ctrl+Z undoes an action. But there are many other handy keyboard shortcuts for Office 365 apps. Tab lets you easily switch between fields and tabs in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel; spacebar moves the insertion point to the next space or tab stop. For example, pressing Enter after typing a sentence in Word inserts a new paragraph. If you’re typing several sentences on one line with no spaces or tab stops (called single-spacing), press Shift+Enter at the end of each sentence to start a new paragraph automatically.
Review Tab
Most of the time, we focus on using a mouse when working with our computer. Mouse use is great for many tasks, but it can be slow and tedious when trying to get things done quickly. With these simple shortcuts and commands, you’ll be able to speed up your workflow while maintaining accuracy.
Backstage Tab
Office 365 offers a suite of applications that make it possible for people and companies to collaborate, create, and share all from one place. The suite includes tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more. At first glance the interface can seem a bit daunting but there are some easy ways to learn the basics and save time in the process. For instance, did you know that if you have a long list of items then it’s possible to select all of them with just one click?
New In Excel 2013
There are a number of new features in Excel 2013 and with them, many new keyboard shortcuts. We’ve compiled a list of our favorites below.
- To toggle the gridlines on or off in the current sheet, press Control + ‘-‘ (dash).
- To select an entire row of data at once, highlight any cell in the row and press Control + Shift + up arrow.
- To select an entire column at once, highlight any cell in the column and press Control + Shift + down arrow.
Freezing Panes
The freeze panes function allows you to see two different parts of a document at the same time. To use this function, click on the row of tabs located at the top of your screen. Select the tab for which you want to freeze the pane. Next, click on Freeze Panes (located in the bottom left). You can also use CTRL+F6.
Changing The Look Of Your Worksheet By Adjusting Gridlines And Number Formatting
One way to make your worksheet easier on the eyes is by tweaking the gridlines and number formatting. To change the gridlines, go to Page Layout tab > Grid > Show Gridline Every and change the number. To change the number format, go to Home > Number > More Number Formats…
