Increase your efficiency in Excel with these mouse based Excel shortcuts

Gašper KamenšekExcel MVP
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These days when talking about efficiency in any Office application, particularly in Excel, keyboard shortcuts are a must. But since we can't really be efficient without the mouse, let's see what are the hidden, but great uses of the mouse in Excel.


Paste as Value

Let's start with one of my favorites. If you've opened Excel more than once, you have absolutely felt the need to copy some data and paste it as a Value. Where you only need the results of a formula but not the formula itself. And I guess we all went about it the same way. Right click and Copy or Ctrl + C and then Right Click and say Paste Special and I guess you all know the drill.

But here's another way to go about doing this. You select the Cell or a Range of Cells that you want to change to values. Then you place the mouse cursor anywhere on the edge of the selected Range but the bottom right corner. So anywhere but there! Now you right click and hold that click and then just shift focus, so swing the Range to the right (left, top, bottom) and back while holding the right click all this time. When the Range is where you want to Paste it, you simply release the Right Click. You get the following menu...  
Right Click Menu 1You select Copy Here as Values Only and here comes the eternal happiness we all seek :)


Fill Series

When faced with creating a series in Excel, we all turn to the Home tab and look for the Fill command. But here's how the pros do it…

Same as when using the Fill Series command, you write the first value in your series in a Cell and then place yourself on that cell. Next step is to place the mouse cursor in the bottom right corner of the cell's border (so the exact opposite of the above example) and then Right Click, hold the click and again just shift focus (swing the Cell to the right (left, top, bottom) and back while holding the right click all this time). Now you get the following menu…  Some brilliant options there but the one we need is the bottom one Series…
Right Click Menu 2

Get around get around I get around

Borrowed the title from the Beach boys, but in Excel it is vital that you can Get Around ! The Ctrl + Arrows combinations are a given when maneuvering a large table. But the mouse can also get you there. It's actually quite simple.

You place your self in a cell and if you want to go to the bottom of data in that column, all you have to do is place a mouse cursor on the bottom border of that cell, and then you just double click. If you placed yourself on the Right border, you would go to the last piece of data in that row and so on… As simple as that!
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Gašper KamenšekExcel MVP
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Comments (2)

SteveCost Accountant
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Top Expert 2012

Commented:
A couple of very nice little tips there, ty.
Sanjay GandhiFounder, Kenhal

Commented:

Scroll to end of table using mouse


Suppose you have a large table, spanning from A5 to Z500.
Your currently selected cell is B10.
Double-click on right (vertical) wall of cell-pointer to jump to right edge of table.
From B10, double-click on bottom wall of cell-pointer to jump to bottom edge of table.
Visit all four corners of your table, using walls of cell-pointer.
Just double-click walls of cell-pointer to reach ends of table, happy.

Ends are just clicks away.

-San

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