Shortcut Keys in Excel 2000 through Excel 2007

Microsoft Office Assistance: Keyboard shortcuts  for Excel 2003, be sure to click on “Show All” to see all descriptions (27.24KB, 22 pages).  (for things to come in Excel 12 see David Gainer -- Charlie's list).

Excel Cheat Sheet (PDF), Deb Sklar (PDF, 23 KB, print 2 pages).  Technology Traning Resources, University of Washington, Tacoma

Euro Currency Symbol (#euro)

Excel 2002 additions   (#new2002)          Excel 2002 additions

Excel 2002 includes keyboard shortcuts to access the border styles buttons on the Border tab of the Format Cells dialog box.  (Q277581)   Use the following keyboard commands to select the specified border styles:

ALT+T   Top Border     ALT+B   Bottom Border     ALT+L   Left Border

ALT+R   Right Border     ALT+D   Diagonal and Down     ALT+U   Diagonal and Up

ALT+H   Horizontal     ALT+V   Vertical

Q288981 XL2002: How to Use Speech Recognition to Select Cells, Rows, and Columns

Excel 2003 additions   (#foobar)

Restore normal Ctrl+A before risking your data.  Ctrl+A has always meant one thing (Select everything) in all PC applications that have any selection or editing ability.  Excel 2003 has deviated from this standard.  The following macro uses application.RecordMacro to generate the code that you would not otherwise see within a recorded macro when a macro was invoked (ability was lost in recording a macro in versions after Excel 95). ; Of course if you have macros disabled then even this macro is not going to help you with Excel 2003.  Though not shown in the shortcuts for this Ctrl+Shift+SpaceBar will also NOT select all cells like Ctrl+A in Excel 2003, though it still at least does not change the active cell – if it is a cell(s) selection that you start with.

Sub Ctrl_A()
  'Excel 2003 Ctrl+A is FUBAR·ed in Excel 2003
  '  use this shortcut to cut your loses, (D.McR 2004-06-16)
  '  BEFORE you destroy your data integrity.
  'Ctrl+A is fixed on this machine if assigned to Ctrl+A
  'You must preserve the active cell or use of Ctrl+A
  '  for normal use such a preselecting a cell before Ctrl+A, then sort
    Dim acell As Range
    Set acell = ActiveCell
    Cells.select
    Application.RecordMacro "'Comment from Ctrl_A in " _
      & ThisWorkbook.Name
    Application.RecordMacro "Cells.Select          ' Ctrl_A"
    acell.Activate
    Application.RecordMacro "Range(""" & acell.Address(0, 0) _
      & """).activate  ' Ctrl_A" 
    Beep   'if you want to indicate restored usage
End Sub

When recording a macro, these lines will be inserted in the recorded macro:

    'Comment from Ctrl_A in personal.xls if C8 was the active cell
    Cells.Select          ' Ctrl_A
    Range("C8").Activate  ' Ctrl_A

Excel 2003 has eliminated all or most of the context menu (Shift+F1).  You can no longer use Help, What's this (Shift+F1)    to:

• Can't -- Point to a menu item for more information.
• Can't -- Point to a toolbar button for more information.
• Can't -- Point to more buttons such as on formatting toolbar and get more information for each item.
• Can't -- Point to a any other part of the spreadsheet for more information, i.e. Title bar, minimize/restore/maximize/close buttons, font box, name box, formula bar, column heading, row heading, worksheet area, sheet navigation arrows, sheet tabs, status bar, window sizing border, scroll bar

Also see Excel 2003 Review, by John Walkenbach and he didn't even go into what's broke to not recommend it.  Actually he did touch on the Help system without actually saying that a lot of it didn't work anymore.

Excel 2007 (Ctrl+A gets worse)
If the worksheet contains data, CTRL+A selects the current region (Ctrl+*).
  Pressing CTRL+A a second time selects the current region and its summary rows.
  Pressing CTRL+A a third time selects the entire worksheet. 
 
The only valid bypass (non solution) is to make sure that you invoke Ctrl+A at least three times as there is no problem with hitting this shortcut more than three times.  Failure to change the way you invoke Ctrl+A will result in the ultimate destruction of a worksheet in a worksheet when you fail to change your habit(probably a very large worksheet) after sorting data, unless you can reverse (UNDO) the changes or exit without saving.  There is no visual indication that you have selected the entire worksheet, nor is it likely that you would always for such an indication if there were.
 
You can click on the "Select All" button between the row headers and the column headers, but it will change the selected cell as well.  Ctrl+A (times 3) does not change the selected cell which is an important distinction.
 
See Excel 2007 Ergonomic Hell, A not so smooth conversion to Excel 2007 from previous versions. 
 
For those of you stuck with Excel 2007, your best bet is to learn as many keyword shortcuts as you can and to make heavy use of the Context menus, which have been slightly improved but will problably see the same "improvements" as you've seen with ribbons destroying functional main menus.

OnKey to Reassign a key or shortcut (#onkey)

Deactivate a Shortcut key (#deactivate)

    ' Disable Copy keyboard shortcut
        Application.OnKey "^c", ""
    ' Reactivate  Copy  keyboard shortcut 
        Application.OnKey "^c"

Use of ONKEY to invoke a macro from a Function Key (#onkey)

Reference “OnKey Method [Excel 2003 VBA Language Reference]” http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vbaxl11/html/xlmthOnKey1_HV05203370.asp

Would not really suggest changing your basic keys, and keyboard shortcuts, but here is how you can change the HOME key not use of braces in the following (not parens).

Sub botchup_home()
    Application.OnKey "{HOME}", "Alternative_Home"
end sub
sub unbotch_home()
   application.onkey "{HOME}",  ""
end sub
Sub alternative_Home()
   range("F14").activate
end sub

• F-key to open a particular worksheet, Dave Peterson, misc, 2004-03-28.  Use of Auto_Open to set function key, and of Auto_Close to restore normal use of the Function key.  Chip Pearson has a shorter, less rigorous solution in same thread.
   
• Here is a clever use of onkey to intercept a single key stroke into a cell; otherwise, if not a specific key it acts normal.  If you need to begin cell content with a lowercase “e” you can use the formula bar.  (Jason Zischke, 2006-02-23, programming)

  Private Sub Worksheet_Activate()
    Application.EditDirectlyInCell = False
    Application.OnKey "{e}", "Macro1"
  End Sub
  Private Sub Worksheet_Deactivate()
    Application.EditDirectlyInCell = True
    Application.OnKey "{e}"
  End Sub
  

  The above are event macros installed with the sheet, the sample macro1 is installed in a standard module in the same workbook.

  Sub Macro1()
      msgbox "Hi David, you pressed 'e'"
  end Sub
  

For more information on Onkey and codes used see Onkey Method and Onkey Method Example in your VBA Help.

Some of my own additions -- Creating your own shortcut keys   (#mykeys)

Listed above were all of the shortcut keys for Excel.  You can also make your own short cut keys.

To create a shortcut key for a macro
   Alt+F8 (Tools, macro, macros), select the macro, options, key in shortcut key. 

You will get a warning if you attempt to change an existing shortcut.  But there could be
shortcuts in other non open workbooks.

Actually I invoke most of my own macros from menus or toolbar buttons.  Also see summary of how to invoke macros).

Enter data using shortcut keys
User added Shortcut Keys
Join, join cells together by words (see join in join doc)	Ctrl+J (lowercase)
PasteSpecialvalues, Paste Special Values	Ctrl+SHIFT+V
PasteSpecialFormats, Paste Special Formats (like Format Painter)	Ctrl+SHIFT+P
Reset the last cell (see lastcell doc)	Ctrl+K (lowercase)
ReversI, reverse order of cells (see ReversI in join doc) [wipes out fill to right_	Ctrl+Shift+R
SepTerm, separate first word (see SepTerm in join doc)	Ctrl+T (lowercase)
SepLastTerm, separate last word (see SepLastTerm)	Ctrl+L (lowercase)
PreviousDay, macro with Activecell.value = now - 1	Ctrl+M (lowercase)
Available keys for own usage:  (if you've not already used them yourself)     Ctrl+           available are: E, F, G, H, J, L through T, Y     Ctrl+Shift+ available are: C thru F, H thru N, Q thru T, and Y

• Name Box Shortcut, Chip Pearson, macro shortcut to the Name Box on the formula bar. (suggests CTRL+SHIFT+N as a shortcut).  F5 is GoTo and allows you to select a cell or range the same as using the name box.

Addins to simulate Shortcut keys for Formatting (#formatting)

• SuperSub, John Walkenbach, entry of superscripts and subscripts as an alternative to selecting characters on the address bar and use Format, cells, alignment.
• Name Box Shortcut, Chip Pearson, shortcut to the Name Box on the formula bar.

Macros to simulate Shortcut keys for formatting (#macros)

• Creating a Center Across Selection Button, to simulate the Excel 95 center Across button that does not merge cells.  This is code create or obtain your own button.

Windows Shortcut – Moving a Window (#winmove)

Windows such as the Excel Window, and the workbook Window(s) within Excel can be moved around by Right clicking and dragging the window.  Sometimes the window gets moved so that the blue title bar is hardly visible or can't be dragged from top or upper corners.  To solve that
   Alt+Spacebar   for Excel Window, or
   Alt+minus         for Workbook Window   (with NumLock key OFF)
look at the menu, choose Move, then move the window around with arrow keys.

For more information refer to Excel Window, Workbook Window, Worksheet Window, Moving a Window

WINKEY shortcuts (#winkey)

The Winkey works even if Explorer or the Shell doesn't have the focus.   

Customising Explorer and the Start Menu

 

Key	Description
Winkey or Ctrl + Esc	Opens the Start Menu
Winkey + D	Minimises or Unminimises all windows, SHIFT reverses
Winkey + E	Starts Explorer
Winkey + F	Starts Find Files or Folders
Winkey + Ctrl + F	Starts Find Computer
Winkey + M	Minimises all windows [leaves dialogs up]
Winkey + Shift + M	Unminimises all windows
Winkey + R	Starts the Run Dialog
Winkey + F1	Starts Windows Help (F1 start help for the current application, if the focus is in Explorer or the desktop F1 also starts Windows Help)
Winkey + Tab	Cycles through open windows with out bringing the Window to the top (press Enter)
Winkey + Break	Starts System Properties

xxx
 
Assigning your own shortcut for FIND in your own personal folder:
or see Set up a Search shortcut in your Start Menu for a search of your hard drive

AutoFit of Columns and Rows (#autofit)

You can autofit row(s), or column(s) by selecting a range of either or Select All (Ctrl+a, unless you have Excel 2003) then double-clicking on the boundary between the heading letters or numbers.  There is also a Select All button (gray/grey) located at the intersection of the row number headings and column letter headings.  More information on use of mouse.  VBA: Cells.EntireColumn.AutoFit

Calculate and recalculation   (#calc)

Tools, Options, Calculation (tab), calculation: [x] Automatic

Application.Calculate	calculates all open workbooks.
Range.Calculate	calculates the specified range
F9	Calculates all sheets in all open workbooks.
Ctrl+F9	(Minimize the worksheet)
Shift+F9	Calculate the active worksheet.
Ctrl+Alt+F9	Recalculates all cells on all worksheets in all open workbooks.
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F9	For Excel 2002 will rebuild all dependency trees.

The common thread running through all but Ctrl+Alt+F9 of the above is that the recalculation occurs *only* on the cells that the Excel calculation engine thinks are dirty.

Since the calculation engine occasionally gets this wrong, we also have
Ctrl+Alt+F9 which forces a recalculation of *everything* in all open workbooks whether or not Excel *thinks* recalculations are needed.

Status Bar may continue to show "Calculate", try the Ctrl+Alt+F9, make sure tools, options is on automatic calculation, you can try clearing the status bar (  Application.StatusBar = ""  ) to see if problem goes away and it may be stuck because of code which has to be recalcualted having to do with volatile coding.  Also check for MS KB articles on the statusbar link.

Volatile functions are one way to force a recalculation.  Generally it will help to avoid volatile functions, but it is available if needed.  For instance a change to a format of a cell is not detected and will not cause a recalculation in a user defined function that simply references the correct cell.  The builtin Volatile functions are not as bad: CELL(), INDIRECT(), INFO(), OFFSET(), NOW(), RAND(), TODAY() as those in a user defined function.

	A	B	C	D	E
1	222	GetFormula	It would take Ctrl+Alt+F9 to update cell A3 (or reopenig workbook, or rentry of formula)
2	222	=$A$1	'-- recalcated for referencec Function volt1(cell As Range)   volt1 = cell.Value End Function	'--not automatically recalculated Function volt2()   volt2 = Range("a1").Value End Function	Function volt3()   Application.Volatile True   volt3 = Range("a1").Value End Function
3	222	=volt1($A$1)
4	111	=volt2()
5	222	=volt3()

Recalculate all open cells, worksheets, and workbooks
To recalculate all cells on all worksheets in all open workbooks, press CTRL+ALT+F9

Note   Recalculation of all formulas may take considerable time.  To recalculate only the current worksheet, press SHIFT+F9

Warning:  This is one way to learn that the A1 or other cell reference in the formula =CELL("filename",A1) really is needed.  Without the cell reference, recalculate will cause the active worksheet to appear instead of the name of the worksheet where the formula resides.  Another problem with displaying the active sheet instead of the sheet with the formula would be using
    SheetName = ActiveSheet.Name instead of
    SheetName = Application.Caller.Parent.Name
Reference to article posted by John Green.

If you have XL97 and do not have SR-2, checkout   XL97 recalculation problem in the MS KB.

The following is from a posting by Tom Ogilvy (Jun 1, 1999) for code to simulate Ctrl+Alt+F9
— For more information see SendKeys Statement in your VBE HELP. —

Sub tester3()
Application.SendKeys "^%{F9}"
End Sub

Back when the recalc problem was so prevalent, some people mapped this
to the F9 key use
Application.onkey "{F9}","xlmisc68.xls!Tester3"

John Walkenbach then reported that in XL2000 the Ctrl+Alt+F9 gets recorded as:
    Application.CalculateFull

The following summarizes Programming use (Charles Wilson, 2000-11-10 programming)

In Excel 2000:
Application.calculate      ' f9
application.calculatefull  ' ctrl-alt-f9

in Excel 97
application.calculate      ' f9
SendKeys "%^{F9}", True    ' ctrl-alt-f9

For more information on Sendkeys see this MSDN article, "Sendkeys Method"  —  ^ for Ctrl,   % for Alt,  + for Shift,   {F8} for F8

For information on XL97 Recalculation patch for SR-1 see
  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q174868
problem was corrected in XL97 SR-2.

Q224183 - XL2000: Certain Functions Calculate Differently in Early Versions of Excel
  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q224183
Summary: When you use certain functions, you may receive a different value depending on the version of Microsoft Excel that you are using.

CalculateFull Method Example
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/officedev/off2000/xlmthcalculatefullx.htm
Summary: MSDN Library - Office Developer Documentation - Office 2000. Excerpt: CalculateFull Method Example This example compares the version of Microsoft Excel with the version of Excel that the workbook was last calculated in.

Auto_Open set to guarantee Calculation is turned on (#autocalc)

I had trouble with Recalculation being turned off that I put code into Auto_Open to fix it.  Turned out that it was an Addin that I wasn't even using that was causing this.

    Sub auto_open()
      If Application.Calculation <> -4105 Then
         '-4105 automatic, -4135 manual, 2 semi-automatic
         MsgBox Application.Calculation & " <calculation in> " & _
            ActiveWorkbook.FullName
         Application.Calculation = xlAutomatic
         MsgBox Application.Calculation
      End IF
    End Sub

Laptops may not have a full complement of keys (#laptops)

No key to left of 1-2-3 to toggle Formula view (Ctrl+`), solution use a macro and assign shortcut key -- or use Tools, Options, View Tab, Format (Alt+[T,O], view tab, Alt+R)

Sub Toggle_DisplayFormulas()
    ActiveWindow.DisplayFormulas = Int(ActiveWindow.DisplayFormulas + 1)
End Sub

Keying in a Non-breaking space CHAR(160) (#nbsp)

To manually Replace a  Char(160)  value which is known as a non-breaking space ( ) in HTML or a required blank (RBL) in rich text formatted documents use one of the following:
 

on a desktop Ctrl+H then
Find what -- hold the Alt and key in 0160 with Alt+0160 on the numeric keypad (Not the number row)
Replace with -- leave the to field empty and use Replace All

on a laptop Ctrl+H then
Find what -- hold the Alt and key in 0160 with Fn+0160 on the numeric keypad
Replace with -- leave the to field empty and use Replace All

Right-Click (Context) or Pop-Up Menu to Paste Formulas   (#rclick)

Chip Pearson uses a Right-Click menu to copy the formula of a single cell and to paste the formula unchanged to another cell.  Requires coding in your Auto_Open macro.
  http://google.com/groups?threadm=uNR1fmHt%24GA.287%40cppssbbsa05

Right-Click context menu areas in Excel: 

   title bar, menu bar, column headers, row headers, worksheet, worksheet tabs, scroll bars, status bar, navigation arrows,

Some shortcut cursor techniques, evidently not considered shortcuts (#cursor)

Fill Handle   (#fillhand)

The fill-handle is one of the most powerful tools in Excel, and normally alleviates the need to type in formulas similar to the previous lines.  Used to replicate content (values, formulas, formatting, color), copy cells, fill in a series (Mon, Tue, ...; 1, 2, 3, ...).

Moving a group of rows or columns to another location (#move)

On the worksheet you can, select the row(s) to be moved then Hold the SHIFT key and grab the upper or lower boundary with the left mouse key and drag to between the rows you want to move it to.  Similar for columns instead.  (for more information see mouse topic on my Fill Handle page.)

I guess this is not considered a shortcut, and theses tips are not easily shown in the above table.  You will find it in Excel HELP (F1) --> index --> move --> move or copy cells

Sheet Tab navigation arrows (#sheettabs)

Read about More sheets by right-click on navigation arrows.

Hold shift key down and click on sheet navigation arrows and you go to next set of worksheet tabs not currently visible.

Important Excel 2000 keys picked by MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) (#msdnchoice)

 

	B	C
18	Excel 2000 Shortcut keys in --       http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/O2kkeys.aspx
19	Activity	Shortcut Keys
20	Alternate between displaying cell values and displaying cell formulas	CTRL+` (single left quotation mark)
21	Calculate all sheets in all open workbooks	F9
22	Calculate the active worksheet	SHIFT+F9
23	Copy	CTRL+C
24	Create a chart that uses the current range	F11 or ALT+F1
25	Display the Format Cells dialog box	CTRL+1
26	Display the Go To dialog box	F5
27	Fill the selected cell range with the current entry	CTRL+ENTER
28	Insert the current time	CTRL+:
29	Insert today's date	CTRL+;
30	Move to the beginning of the worksheet	CTRL+HOME
31	Move to the last cell on the worksheet, which is the cell at the intersection of the  rightmost used column and the bottommost used row (in the lower-right corner), or  the cell  opposite the home cell, which is typically A1	CTRL+END
32	Open	CTRL+O
33	Paste	CTRL+V
34	Paste a function into a formula	SHIFT+F3
35	Print	CTRL+P
36	Save	CTRL+S
37	Select all (when you are not entering or editing a formula)	CTRL+A (unless you have Excel 2003
38	Select the current column	CTRL+SPACEBAR
39	Select the current row	SHIFT+SPACEBAR
xx	Select all cells leaving active cell still the active cell. (broken by design in Excel 2003 where it works same as broken Alt+A in Excel 2003)	CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR
40	Undo	CTRL+Z
41	When you enter a formula, display the Formula Palette after you type a  function  name	CTRL+A

Some Interesting Web Searches

Was looking for list of described icons to go with the tables here.  Did not find what I was looking for and all the icons would probably really affect your time in seeing this page but did turn up a lot of interesting links with the following Google Web Search:

• excel icons paste special values

Error Messages in Windows (#ErrMsgs)

Reporting an Error message as plain text can be tedious.  If you have software that grabs a screen shot and converts to text (SnagIT) you can save time.  There is a shortcut key combination that sometimes works to copy the text from an error message -- Ctrl+Alt+C.  An alternative for dialog messages that don't come from Windows if you don't have SnagIT can be found in How To Copy Text or Error Messages from Any Dialog Boxes in Windows » Raymond.CC Blog, which lists several applications that can grab a dialog message.

Using the HELP files with your Excel Software (#help)

See General Information on Getting HELP within Excel software, in other words using your HELP file.

HELP files at Microsoft in HTML universally available (#MS_Help)

Help reference to Office products (including Excel) can be found online, and match the help files in your products, with the advantages of HTML use of Find and hopefully Search that should become better than the Answer Wizard in Help.

It can be a bit confusing that MS maintains the same information in various web pages and is continually changing the names of those web pages, so I will include some of the multiple places, specifically note some begin with www, some with office, and some with support.

True to form it has been two weeks, so NONE of the following links work.
 
  http://www.microsoft.com/office/techinfo/productdoc/default.htm
  http://support.microsoft.com/support/Office/InProdHlp/contents/Excel/tocxldefault.asp

Excel 2000,  Excel 2002

These are currently (for the rest of this month - Jun 30, 2002) good links:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/techinfo/productdoc/2000/en/excel/
http://www.microsoft.com/office/excel/using/default.asp
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/offhelp/off2000/excel/
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/offhelp/off2000/excel/xlmain9/html/xlread9.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/office/techinfo/productdoc/2002/en/excel/
http://www.microsoft.com/office/excel/using/default.asp
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/offhelp/offxp/excel/
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/offhelp/offxp/excel/xlmain10/html/xlstart.htm

compare offxp/excel/xlmain10   to   off2000/excel/xlmain9

Once you get the specific HELP file you want you should notice some buttons from left to right.  TOC only, TOC and topics, Topic only; Specific URL (for bookmarking); Show all[/hide all] topics.

Excel HELP information at Microsoft (#selfdestruct)

Since everything on the Microsoft site gets trampled on very frequently you may have better luck using a search where offered for: Excel 2000 specifications

Excel 2000 Shortcut keys: 
    http://www.microsoft.com/office/techinfo/productdoc/2000/en/excel/xlrefUsingshortcutkeys.htm [former link]
    http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/offhelp/off2000/excel/ -- as seen on 2002-02-10
Excel 2001 Shortcut keys:)  Shortcut key information for Macintosh is rather limited on the web
   XL2001: Shortcut Keys Available in Excel 2001 for Mac (Part 1)
   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/275633/EN-US/ -- as seen on 2006-09-28
Excel 2002 Shortcut keys:  http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/offhelp/offxp/excel/default.asp?URL=/assistance/offhelp/offxp/excel/xlmain10/html/xlrefUsingshortcutkeys.htm
-- valid 2002-02-10 but script is broken they just can't get web pages to work properly
Excel 2003 Shortcut keys:  (not complete) Microsoft Office Assistance: Excel shortcut and function keys
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/preview.aspx?AssetID=HP011116591033&CTT=4&Origin=CH062527951033
 
Excel 2000 Specification:  [What's New] http://www.microsoft.com/office/techinfo/productdoc/2000/en/excel/xldecMicrosoftExcelSpecifications.htm
Excel 2002 Specification:  [What's New]
  http://www.microsoft.com/office/techinfo/productdoc/2002/en/excel/xlrefChartingSpecifications.htm
 
  Microsoft Office 97/Visual Basic Programmer's Guide
 

Product Documentation, Get the Help files for Microsoft Office programs— online. Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, FrontPage, Publisher, MapPoint.

Hidden Menu Items exposed with SHIFT key (#hidden)

Shift Key menus

• SHIFT+File,  exposes:  Closes all Files
• SHIFT+Edit,  exposes:  Copy Picture, Paste Picture, Paste Picture Link

Also see these pages:  toolbars, rightclick, logoshd

---

Accessibility / Disability / Impaired Sight / Keyboard Access (#accessibility)

Working with disabilities / accessibility options:  Some documentation found in the Microsoft Knowledge DataBase (MS KB) for Windows 2000 looking for disabilities & mouse turns up some items of interest.

Information from Microsoft

• Description of Windows 2000 Magnifier and Utility Manager Tools
• Microsoft Accessibility Home, information on working with disability, including visual disabilities (impaired, impairment, sight).
  Accessibility:   [Features]  [Index]  [Newsletter]  [Search]  [Products]
• Windows 2000: Accessibility for People with Disabilities
• Keyboard Assistance Shortcuts for Win95, Win98, WinNT, choose the Word (.doc) version.  Keyboard Assistance -- Search
• Also see Excel Help (or the Help in any Office Product), answer wizard:  Accessibility for people with disabilities.

Additional corporate sites on disability and workplace environment

• IBM Accessibility Center --
     [Search tips] - "Phrases" plus(+) minus(-),
     [Laws]  [Learning Disabilities]
• Accessible DHTML - MDC (Mozilla), DHTML accessibility is implemented in Firefox 1.5, and is being developed at W3C - World Wide Web Consortium. The code for DHTML accessibility in Firefox has been contributed by IBM.
• Macintosh (Apple) Disability Solutions -- also see Downloadable list of Mackintosh shortcut keys
• Computing Services - Computer Accessibility Options.  A subset of available shortcut keys with PC and Mac equivalents -- Keyboard Shortcuts for PC and Mac, Towson Univ. (Maryland).

Additional accessibility webpages/websites

• disability factsheet, National Commission Persons with Disability (Maltese).
• John Wilson's from the keyboard tutorials, for the visually impaired.  [Google search: visually impaired Excel]
• Digital Web Magazine - 10 Reasons Clients Don't Care About Accessibility, and why laws trying to address so many different and conflicting requiredments are doomed to failure.
• Accessibility Tutorials for Internet Explorer 6 (specific to IE browser)
• Accessibility features of Firefox - MozillaZine Knowledge Base (specific to Firefox web browser)
• Accessibility in Opera (specific to Opera web browser)

Text to Speech

• Accessibility (broken link), Univ of Hawaii
• Speegle Speak Perfect Web Search., submits a Google search and the results list will be read back to you (Google Labs)

General Resources

• Resource for the Blind, Visually Impaired, Disabled and Interested Parties
• NISS - Special Needs/ Disabilities, by type of disability
• University of Minnesota Accessibility of Information Technology, Frequently Asked Questions on web access, additional links to other aspects, Resources and Tools
• Type With One Hand - About One Hand Typing, Keyboarding and Keyboards
• Adaptive Technology Resource Centre - Alternative Keyboards

Presentations involving Excel worksheets -- location bar hard to see in back of room.

• Tools|Options|General Tab -- Change the font size of the standard font also affects the location bar.  Recycle Excel for change to take effect.

  Not listed as Accessibility, but appears to fit in category

  • RowLiner Add-In, Chip Pearson, changes the color of borders left and right of the entire column of the activecell and same for the row of the activecell, choice of color, and width of each border.  While this addin is very useful please be aware that you will lose the use of Undo (Ctrl+z) and Redo (ctrl+y) since macros and addins using VBA clear the undo stack. 
  • Hands Free browser, free Edumedia, adware.  Requirements:  IE (not Netscape), microphone, etc.  Uninstalled after it showed lots and lots of advertising and offered to (or if you accidentally) click to put all your bookmarks onto their site.  NO THANKS!!! Uninstalled and removed DLL's.  Also having seen the ADVERTxxx.DLL's, I also uninstalled WINAMP and I can now work with my own pages on my own disk quickly once more.  You can probably safely use Dragon Naturally Speaking to do hands free web browsing.

Related Information (#related)

Excel to HTML conversions, the XL2HTML macros generate a smaller file and let HTML do it's own thing rather than simulate Excel.

Toolbar menus.  One way to learn most of the important features in Excel or any other software is to become familiar with each of the items in the menus.  Microsoft Excel 97 Menus « provides a description of each menu item. 

Caps Lock, 2004-09-20, akyhne, uses GetKeyboardState keys(0)

disable keyboard keys, the most effective way to to disable the "Caps Lock" is to pry it off and throw it away or misplace it.  To disable other keys see posting 2004-12-20 by Jim Thomlinson. i.e. Application.OnKey "^{c}", ""

Caps Lock on a laptop:  For a laptop you probably don't want to remove a key, but you want a system wide method of avoiding the problem -- Windows Control Panel, accessibility, ToggleKeys option will provide sound when invoking/revoking Caps Lock, Scroll Lock, or NumLock keys. (in Windows Vista, ToggleKeys is set in Control Panel, Ease of Use, Eases of Access Center, Keyboard).

XL97: How to Disable Shortcut Menus (#kb161440), also see Visual Basic Example to Disable All Shortcut Menus (#kb131257)

Move a Column or Row techniques can be found on the Fill Handle page under topic: Use of Mouse and keys to move, and insert rows or columns.  Another technique is to double-click the fill handle to copy the formula or sequence down as far as the column to the left is filled with adjacent data/formula.

Navigating within a Sheet   Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows -- portions of the "Adobe® Acrobat® 4.0 Tips for Business Professionals" for use with MS products (displayed in HTML format).  Warning: just like MS site, if a page displays 404 "Not Found" or "The page cannot be displayed" -- try Refresh once more. <Insert 24x24 bit B&W picture of a skunk here alt="HTML compatibility of site stinks">

Keyboard Layouts, Keyboard Maps select a country (Canada, Canada, UK, US), turn off popup stoppers and use the shift key on the layout to see those requiring a Shift key.

Keyboard Problems (#hardware),
Try a different keyboard.  Laptops have a PS/2 connention for auxiliary keyboard.
Pop off key cover, remove hair and crud, then vacuum entire keyboard before replacing any cover(s) removed.  Place cover carefully into position and gently press down til it pops in.  [also see Replacing Laptop Keys (and keyboards), and manufacturer's own site]
Cleaning Laptop Keyboard, be careful with liquids and use only in well ventilated area, if the dry spray is Teflon make sure it does not burn. 
Also do a search including your own brand name of laptop and the following search arguments:  remove +laptop +keyboard fix* OR repair*  [additional optional words:  clean* pop* ] Wison Mar, layouts of shortcuts, and other related tips and accessibility information.

Software Problems with Keyboard shortcuts (#problems)

Function Key(s) does not work in Excel 2003, check out this entire thread involving macros, safe mode, addins, trusted publisher.

Specific code for personal function keys and keyboard shortcuts can be found earlier on this page [onkey, foobar].

How to install/use a macro can be found on my Getting Started with Macros page.

How to install toolbar buttons can be found on throughout my Toolbars, Custom Buttons and Menus page.

Worksheet Function names, where to find lists of and examples of usage.

Utilities related to Shortcut Keys and Toolbars (#utilities)

• Getting Macro Short cut keys «, Ivan Moala, lists: macro name, shortcut key, and Macro Description.
• Shortcuts Found in Excel Menus (& toolbar buttons)
• ASAP Utilities v2.98b [955kb] W9x/NT/2K FREE « [screen shots]
  ASAP Utilities is a set of over 200 Excel 97/2000 add-ins that will revolutionize the way you and your users interact with data.  Everything from formatting text and cells to handling sheets and selections is included and the installation is as simple as pointing the way to the add-in file (.XLA) included in the package [2001-04-11 GnomeREPORT].

Desktop Shortcuts (#desktop)

Problem invoking Excel from a desktop shortcut.  Solution: Got to tools -> options -> general -> uncheck "ignore other applications".

Create a shortcut to a specific file to the desktop, start bar, or quick launch, drag the file with the right mouse button from the directory (in Explorer) to the desktop, and chose "create shortcut here". Explorer to the desktop. 

To use VBA to place a shortcut to a specific file to the desktop, see posting Re: Short cuts? (Bob Phillips, 2005-03-31, misc).  Actually Tom Ogilvy posted links to several programming methods ( 2000-12-10, programming).  Typical of Microsoft the lnks to the MSKB pages no longer work and the articles are missing as well, but there are still the links to 3 newsgroup posts.

Create a desktop shortcut to Excel itself, find Excel in Windows Start and drag to the Desktop (should see the shortcut arrow on the shortcut).

-Or- find "Microsoft Excel" in the Windows Start, Programs then drag with right mouse button to desktop, then choose "Create Shortcut(s) Here".

Keyboard things, other than shortcuts (#keys)

• How to Activate CapsLock and NumLock from Code: NumLK, Num Lk, Number Lock key toggled in code.

Additional Shortcut Information « (#more)

Summary of Shortcut key webpages to be worked into the area below.

Other Excel shortcut pages:
   Offsite:  VBA Shortcut Keys (builtin) for Excel «, on Chip Pearson's site (38.7 KB, 3 pages).  Assigning Shortcut keys in VBA programmatically rough posting See Previous topic:  MS_Help">HELP files at Microsoft in HTML universally available
Keyboard Shortcuts & Accessiblity,
Also see Keyboard Shortcuts in
   http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2000/TipsExcel.aspx
A downloadable Excel workbook with Shortcut keys for Excel and other office products can be downloaded from (think of a folder to store in, i.e. h:\exceldocs ).  I think it leaves a lot to be desired, you can make your own judgment, I included the Excel 2000 portion in the topic above.
   http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/O2kkeys.aspx

Excel Shortcuts a summary as seen in Excel 2002 HELP.
   Onsite:   Mouse Operations in Excel:  Use of Mouse and keys to move, and insert rows or columns (#mouse)
   Onsite:   OE
   Onsite:   IE RClick Menu Additions for IE
   Offsite:  Explorer (have to expand them)
   Offsite:  Keyboard Shortcuts [alt], some general shortcuts, most are global working in several applications, or systems.
  Keyboard Shortcuts, in Microsoft Products (microsoft.com)

Other Excel shortcut pages:
Shortcuts, clicks, in Excel and other applications:  Right-click:  Excel, IE;  Short Cuts (keyboard shortcuts):  Excel (this page); IE, OE, Win2000;  Toolbars:  Excel;  Drag/Fillhandle: Excel Fill Handle, Windows drag files;   Accessibility Options: MouseKeys; Event Macros: Excel

For most Office applications to show keyboard shortcuts:
   Help --> Index --> Keyboard
and to show accessibility options (also see accessibility mentioned in previous topic)
   Help --> Index --> accessibility
Comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Products see « Keyboard Assistance « [up through OFFICE XP (2000)]
     includes links to products and versions including:  Excel 2000 (109 KB / 19 pages) ,  Excel 2002 (133 KB / 23 pages) [size on MS pages does not include images, due to scripting errors].  Excel 2003 ( 51 KB / 5 pages: ctrl & F keys only) The intrusive sidebar (loss of real estate) includes valuable links "Guide by Disability", "Step by Step Tutorials".  For more Windows and MS applications Shortcuts, A.R.Miller ( 8.2 KB / 2 pages, * see his other pages).

Desktop and Start Menu Shortcuts, Ctrl+Alt+(letter), created by right-click on desktop icon, Properties, Assign Shortcut -- i.e. Mozilla (Ctrl+Alt+M), IrfanView(Ctrl+ALT+I), and you already have Lockup while away from desk (Ctrl+Alt+Del, Enter)
and you have Winkey+(letter) for a quick launch, also see Winkey Shortcuts (above).