Paul BarnhurstFP&A Expert Empowering Finance Professionals to Excel Everday

Your mouse is slowing you down.

1 Jul 2026 · 0 min

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0:28

In this short video, the speaker shares productivity tips for Excel, emphasizing how reliance on the mouse can slow work. He highlights favorite built-in shortcuts such as Ctrl+Right for fast navigation and Ctrl+D for copying cells, and explains that these are his go‑to keys. He then describes his own custom macro shortcuts: one that formats numbers as the local currency (quetzales) and another that applies the "center across selection" alignment, both created to avoid navigating through multiple mouse clicks. The overall message is that using keyboard shortcuts—both native and personalized—significantly speeds up Excel tasks.

Do you have a favorite Excel shortcut? Yes, I have built-in shortcuts. I use a lot of Ctrl+Right Ctrl+D to copy cells. I use it all the time. I would say it's my favorite built-in shortcut. And then I have personalized shortcuts that I use to format my local currency, quetzales. I don't want to go 3 layers with my mouse. I developed a macro shortcut for my currency and also for center across selection, which is a very common function that I use. I have developed my own personalized shortcut for that.