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My Favorite Shortcuts in Excel

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My Favorite Shortcuts in Excel

I love shortcuts a lot. They are the most important tool in my productivity tool belt. Helping me to speed things up immensely. Here are the most important shortcuts that I use in Excel all the time:

The first two shortcuts are for inserting the current time and date when tracking my hours for a client in my contractor work. Previously, I looked up the date and time on the system clock and typed them in. This took only a few seconds, but when you try to leave a busy commuter train every second counts. Today, they are just a shortcut away.

Current Date and Time

To Insert the current date in Excel, press Ctrl+; (semi-colon) at the same time on both Windows and the Mac

Adding current date in Excel Ctrl + ;
Adding current Date in Excel

To insert the current static time in Excel, press Ctrl+Shift+; (semi-colon) at the same time on Windows or ⌘+; (command plus semi-colon) on Mac.

Shortcut to add current time in excel - Ctrl + Shift + ;
Adding Current time in Excel

Copy cell content from the above or from the left

Sometimes, I just need quickly duplicated content form the above or from the left cell. Using the clipboard is a good way to do it, but if you need something faster then here are the shortcuts I use duplicating existing content

To copy cell content from the left of your current cell in Excel hit Ctrl+R on Both Windows and Mac.

Animated git showing how to insert the content of the left cell in our current cell
Copy the content from the left

To copy cell content form the top of your current cell in Excel hit Ctrl+D on both Windows and Mac.

Animated git showing how to insert the content of the top cell in our current cell
Copy the content from the top