Hotkeys in Excel

In my previous article, “Keyboard Shortcuts in Excel,” I stressed the importance of shortcuts and even provided a few examples. Indeed, having access to a list of shortcuts is valuable. However, memorizing all these shortcuts can be quite a challenging task, wouldn’t you agree?

Do you remember “Felix Felicis,” also known as “Liquid Luck,” which Professor Slughorn gave to Harry Potter? Essentially, when consumed in a small quantity, Felix Felicis provides the drinker with a perfect and uninterrupted day. Everything they do during that time seems to go their way, and they make the right decisions without even realizing it.

Now, imagine that I too have a small “Liquid Luck” of sorts for all of you. Read on to discover what it entails.

You do not have to learn the shortcuts or check the list of shortcuts every time when you need it. There are numerous shortcuts in Excel for which you only have to press “Alt” and then follow the hotkeys (letters), and you are done. I will explain this with one example.

Step 1: — Press “Alt.”

Step 2: — Check the ribbon now. It is generating a letter for each menu we have in the ribbon.

Step 3: — Let’s say there is a table in the Excel file, and we want to apply filters to that table. Now, we know that the “Filter” option is under the “Data” tab. So, after pressing “Alt,” we will press “A.”

Step 4: — Now, you will notice that at the bottom of the “Filter” option, we see the letter “T,” which indicates that we need to press “T.”

Please note that while following the above-mentioned steps, the active cell should be on the header of the table. Also, if at any point you press “Escape” or switch to another document, Chrome tab, or anything else that is open, or even the desktop, you will lose your progress, and you will need to start over, which means going back to the first step of pressing “Alt.”

So, from the above example, we can determine that the shortcut for filtering a table is “Alt + A + T.” Using this method, you can discover other shortcuts as well.