Skip to content

Office shortcut of the Week - 2005 compendium

The Office Watch “Shortcut of the Week” tips for Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint from 2005 in the one convenient place.

Tip 1 – Outlook navigation

The Outlook navigation shortcuts could be more intuitive but here they
are:

  • Switch to Mail CTRL+1
  • Switch to Calendar CTRL+2
  • Switch to Contacts CTRL+3
  • Switch to Tasks CTRL+4
  • Switch to Notes CTRL+5

Which relate to the folder pane on the left-side of the screen.

Would that the shortcuts were more like this one to jump to the inbox:

  • Switch to Inbox CTRL+SHIFT+I

Tip 2 – Format Excel cells

We’re always changing the format of Excel cells – fixing the date format, wrapping text in cells, whatever. So here’s how to jump straight to the cell formatting dialog.

Cell Format Ctrl + 1

That’s the Control key plus the number one – from the row above the letters on your keyboard.

Tip 3 – Outlook sorting and jumping

How can you quickly jump to an Outlook message from a long list.

  • Sort the emails by senders name, click on the column headings to do that
  • Click on a message in the list to make sure the cursor focus is on the list
  • Then press the letter you want and the list should jump to the first entry with that letter. Press T and the list will go to the first T entry.

It gets better – quickly type the first letters and it’ll move further down. Press T E quickly and you’ll jump to the first entry that starts with ‘te’, this will work for many characters as you type in succession.

If you pause too long between letters Outlook will think you’ve started another search and, from the example above, you’ll jump to the first T entry then the first E entry.

This tricks works however the Outlook list is sorted – it’ll also work when sorted by Subject.

Tip 4 – PowerPoint black or white screen

Sometimes audiences get fixated on the Powerpoint screen – their glazed stare is like the proverbial bunny in the headlights. You can break the spell by turning off the display while leaving the presentation running.

Simple keystrokes will switch the display to black or white (the latter also good to display your menagerie of shadow animals).

B or period/fullstop will toggle the display between BLACK and normal

W or comma will toggle the display between WHITE and normal

The letter can be upper or lower case.

Tip 5 – Outlook – go to folder

There are many ways to jump between different Outlook folders. One option is:

Ctrl + Y open folder dialog

This shortcut will open a list of Outlook folders, click on the folder you want and the window will change to that folder. Sadly this feature doesn’t let you open a separate window, just change the current window.

Tip 7 – Access

Moving around Access forms can be easier if you remember some shortcuts.

I often have to change the same field in multiple records, you can jump between records in a form while keeping the cursor in the same field using the Ctrl + Page options.

Move to next record Ctrl+PageDown
Move to previous record Ctrl + PageUp

Tip 8 – 17th of March

Jump straight to the File | Open dialog box by simply pressing:

Ctrl + F12

About this author