Play It Again, Sam…

It is always fascinating to me to find Easily-Applied and Useful Shortcuts in Excel. Although today’s shortcut is Super-Easy to use, a quick survey of accomplished Excel Enthusiasts has revealed that few Excel users are aware of this handy tool. This just supports the well-founded knowledge that no one knows Everything about Excel!

While it is common and very intuitive to copy and paste Repetitive data to a set of noncontiguous cells (copy data, select the cells and paste), entering Newly Typed data doesn’t work quite as swimmingly (as the British may say…).

To enter Repetitive New Data into a series of noncontiguous cells, simply hold down the Ctrl key and select all of the cells into which you want to enter your new data. Then type the text you want to enter and (a little drum roll, please…) press Ctrl+Enter.

And, Here’s lookin’ at you, kid, Excel will enter the typed text into All of the Cells in your selection. Now, that’s really nice.

This is may seem a bit elementary, but as any long-time Excel user will testify, “ The fundamental things apply as time goes by.”

Cheers.