Are you liking the new Word/Excel “ribbon” interface we’ve had for the last 5 years?
There is a productivity trick I’d like to share with you. You just have to remember this one key press and you can get work done faster in the ribbon interface.
It’s easier if I use an example, I wanted a shortcut to “merge and center” in Excel.
I know how to do this using the mouse, using that as a guide, hold the <Alt> key until an overlay appears on the ribbon, like below.
I know my next step is on the Home tap, so instead of using the mouse, Press <H> to select the Home tab.
Press <M> to select the Merge and Center menu.
Press <C> to merge and center the selected cells.
This makes the keyboard sequence, ALT HMC a “merge and center” shortcut in Excel.
You could call this a universal keyboard shortcut as it works in Word, Excel, Outlook, anywhere you have a frequently used function.
Knowing this trick has saved me a lot of time and I hope remembering to press one key, Alt, saves you time too 🙂
Best Regards,
Lee Sanders
