Code Mode

I don’t use Microsoft Excel very often but when I do I always find myself looking for the keyboard shortcut for inserting a new line. To me it seems impossible to find this information in Excel itself easily so I always have to resort to Google searching. And when I do that I have to wade through at least 5-6 pages talking about irrelevant shortcuts that don’t do what I need, which is simply to insert rows quickly. Now I figured that if I blog about it I can at least have a tiny chance of remembering the shortcut next time!

Anyway, the easiest way I have found to add a new line in Excel is to first hit SHIFT-SPACE. This marks the entire line that the cursor is on. After that you can just hit CTRL and + as many times you like to get new lines. Similarly CTRL and – will delete a line.

(As a side note I sometimes use Microsoft Project which uses the INSERT key as a shortcut for inserting new rows. Perhaps Microsoft could someday standardize the keyboard shortcuts in the Office applications please?)