Excel Shortcut key 3

[khoisan]

What is the shortcut key for "merge cells" button in Excel?
Can one be created from the keyboard?

 

[xlbo]

Don't know of a shortcut off hand but if you crete this sub

Sub Merger()
selection.merge
end sub

then go to macro dialogue box and assign it to whatever shortcut key you want
Rgds
Geoff

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes

 

[HobbitK]

xlbo ... nice work around

Excel Help gave me this..
Print a list of shortcut keys
If the Contents tab isn't visible, press ALT+C to display it.
Select the heading Shortcut Keys, press ALT+O, and then press P.
Click Print the selected heading and all subtopics.
Select the printing options you want.

 

[khoisan]

Thanks for the advice. A macro key seems the best option.

 

[DaleWatson123321]

Excel does have an icon for "Merge cells", as well as one for "Unmerge cells".

To add these to an existing toolbar, use these steps:

1) Right-click on the toolbar area, and choose "Customize".

2) In the Customize window, click on the "Commands" tab.

3) On the left side (under Categories), click on "Format".

4) On the right side (under Commands), scroll down until you find icons for "Merge cells", and "Unmerge cells".

5) Click-and-drag these to a toolbar.

6) To activate a "keyboard shortcut" for Merge cells, right-click on the icon, and choose "Text Only (Always)". You might also want to change the text in the "Name" box (3rd from the top) - to abbreviate the name and/or to change the letter you want to use to activate the icon. The letter you place after the special "&" character is the one that will be used. For example, on my toolbar, I have &Mge for Merge cells, and &Nmge for Unmerge cells.

I purposely abbreviate the icons because I have "many" icons (with keyboard shortcuts).

Here are a couple of other shortcuts I use OFTEN, and would "highly" recommend for ALL Excel users.

A) <Alt> H - for changing the HEIGHT of a Row.
B) <Alt> W - for changing the WIDTH of a Column

Both these icons are also located under the same location as Merge cells - i.e. under Commands - Format.

I have these on my main toolbar next to &quot;Help&quot; - and named &Ht and &Wd. Note: Because you should only have ONE icon assigned ONE (unique) letter, you will need to edit the &quot;Window&quot; and &quot;Help&quot; icons on the main toolbar and remove the &quot;&&quot; character. For the infequent times I need to use Window and Help, I use the mouse. Also, instead of using Window to go from one worksheet/file to another, I use <Control> <Tab> - again MUCH quicker.

I hope these suggestions for the use of keyboard shortcuts is appreciated. I am very sincere in emphasizing that ALL Excel users can become MUCH MORE EFFICIENT by using keyboard shortcuts.

Please &quot;give it a sincere effort&quot; and I'm sure you'll come to two conclusions: 1) You wish you had set up keyboard shortcuts long ago, and 2) You will proceed to set up other keyboard shortcuts for other tasks you perform on a regular basis.

Regards, ...Dale Watson dwatson@bsi.gov.mb.ca

 

[xlbo]

heh heh heh - knew you'd come up with something Dale
Good show - have a star Rgds
Geoff

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes

 

[DaleWatson123321]

Thanks Geoff. Your &quot;endorsement&quot; is respected and appreciated.

Here are other keyboard shortcut suggestions for everyone to consider...

<Alt> P ...to bring up the &quot;Page Setup&quot; window.

<Alt> \ ...to &quot;Print Preview&quot;.

<Alt> + ...to increase Font size.

<Alt> - ...to decrease Font size.

<Alt> R ...to insert a row or rows.

<Alt> <Tab> R ...to delete a row or rows (the <Tab> is required to go to the second &quot;R&quot; icon).

<Alt> B ...to insert or remove a Page Break.

<Alt> Z ...to Freeze Titles, or un-Freeze Titles.

<Alt> ] ...to bring up the &quot;Format Cells&quot; window. I find this preferable to the build-in shortcut of <Control> 1

The following is one of my favorites, and is a good alternative to Merging cells for headings. Merged cells can sometimes be a &quot;bit of a pain&quot; because of the way it forces the cursor to &quot;jump around&quot;. With the following option, the &quot;jumping&quot; does NOT happen.

<Alt> A ...to center-align text across the cells you have selected.

Excel does not have an icon for this, so it requires that you create a &quot;Custom&quot; icon. This is under: Customize - Commands - Macros, and is called &quot;Custom Button&quot;.

After dragging the icon to your toolbar, and changing the name to &quot;&Align&quot; (so you can activate with <Alt> A), you will then need to attach the following macro which you need to add to your &quot;PERSONAL.xls&quot; file.

Sub AlignAcrossColumns()
With Selection
.HorizontalAlignment = xlCenterAcrossSelection
.WrapText = False
End With
End Sub


I hope these suggestions will serve as &quot;food for thought&quot;, and encourage you to increase your efficiency through use of such shortcuts.

Regards, ...Dale Watson dwatson@bsi.gov.mb.ca

 

[confusedlady]

Dale,
What version is this for? I'm using Excel 97, and some work, some don't. <alt> + is what I use to autosum. confusedlady

 

[DaleWatson123321]

Hi confusedlady,

I use Excel 2000, but have been using these shortcuts since Excel 97.

The examples I gave were only intended as &quot;suggestions&quot;. As for the specific keys each person wants to use, it should be entirely up to each individual's preference.

Naturally it's your choice if you want to keep <Alt> + for AutoSum. Just a suggestion... you could potentially use <Alt> S for AutoSum.

Where you say &quot;some don't work&quot;, can you elaborate ?

I hope this helps.

Regards, ...Dale Watson dwatson@bsi.gov.mb.ca

 

[PeterMoran]

Hi,

Great thinking Dale - woth a star from me too!

Regards,

Peter Moran

 

[khoisan]

Thanks Dale,
I will try the tips you suggest. I ran a small macro (other tip) for the merge function, but it takes 3 times as long to exicute the function compared to clicking the merge button -not good. Gratefull anyway.

 

[xlbo]

1st time uses of functionality always take longer to execute - have you tried running the macro once and then running it again on a different selection afterwards - you will almost certainly see an improvement in speed
tho I would go with Dale's tip as I only provided code because I didn't know of the shortcut key Rgds
Geoff

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes

 

[khoisan]

I have used Dale's instructions on the shortcut keys. This works realy well and has opened a new world of productivity. I canned the macro effort. I don't think macro's are very appropriate for shortcut keys.
Regards,
Frank

 

[khoisan]

PS
I did find it difficult to find the &quot;text only(always)&quot; bar because I closed the Customise window first. But I eventually got the hang of it, Thanks.

 

[confusedlady]

Dale,
Disregard my message! I thought you were listing built-in shortcuts of Excel from the shortcuts listed in help. I was wondering why they're different! Sorry -I read your post again and understand

Melissa confusedlady

 

[DeLaMartre]

You da Man, Dale!

Thanks for the reminders of how powerful keyboard shortcuts can be!

All the Best, -Bob in California