Hey guys, so we share this secret in all our workshops, and are happy to share it with all our readers (for free!). It is sure to make you multiple times faster in Excel! Before we continue, one thing to note  - Any box that floats on your Excel spreadsheet is called a “Dialog Box.” Ex – Format Cells box, Macros box, Pivot-table wizard etc..

Now, whenever you are inside a dialog box, all sections with have a letter underlined. For ex., if you are in the Font tab of the Format Cells dialog box, the “Font” section has “o” underlined, the “Size” section has “s” underlined and so on…You know why? Bill Gates wanted you to use the keyboard! You can simple hit “Alt + underlined letter” to jump to that section!

Get into a habit of looking for the underlined letter and solving  the so-called puzzle. The moment you pay attention, you’ll be surprised to see an underlined letter everywhere!

Very useful tip. Try it!

Hey folks. This is probably the most useful shortcut we have come across in companies and is sure to make you super fast in Excel. Hitting the “F4″ key essentially “repeats” the previous format and works as a redo function.

Whether you want to color random cells with the same color, or put borders around different cells, all you have to do is perform the function on one cell and hit “F4″ to repeat it. This will make life much easier for all of you who deal with performance reports, or who present numbers to clients, seniors or other stakeholders. Hope you like this one. More to come soon. Happy Excelling!

Hi All – We have taught in various companies and we often see people use just “one” hand on the keyboard, while the other hand is playing with their hair, or on the phone, or occupied with other stuff.

The first step to becoming fast in Excel is to use both hands on the keyboard. Always remember that Excel is a “Full-time job” and not a “Part-time job.” Your right hand should be used on the arrow keys and the “Enter” key. The Left hand should be used for Space-bar, Tab, Shift, Ctrl and Alt buttons. Both hands should be used to split up the keys in the middle.

In a lot of our workshops, we see professionals using their “Right” hand to hit space-bar or using the “Left” hand to hit Enter. Doing this is called “Cross-batting” in Excel. It is similar to Cricket, when you try to hit a ball coming from the off-side all the way to the leg-side.

A star professional approaches a job with full commitment, and if you want to become one, start committing yourself to Excel by treating it as a Full-Time Job. You’re sure to surprise yourself every now and then.