I have been collecting some keyboard shortcuts and tips over the last few months for tools I use frequently for software requirements work. I recently posted these to our intranet and thought I would share them on our ArgonDigital Blog.
Requirements Analysts use many tools but among the most commonly used are Excel, Visio and Word. Frequent users of these tools will be familiar with many of these keyboard shortcuts, but take a look anyway. You may find a useful keyboard shortcut that is new to you. I am currently running Microsoft Office 2007 for Excel, Word and Visio and Microsoft Windows XP Professional 2002, but many of these keyboard shortcuts have been around longer than the 2007 version of Microsoft Office.
In the tables below, I use “+” to mean “simultaneously”. For example, “Ctrl + C” means “hold the Control key and the C key down simultaneously”.
Excel:
| TAG | Shortcut | To Do…. |
| Shortcut | F1 | Help |
| Shortcut | F4 | Repeat last command (E.g. use after inserting a new row) |
| Shortcut | F7 | Spell Check |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + 1 | Display the Format Cells dialog box |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + 5 | Strikethrough selected text |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + A | Select ALL — from current position to BOF and EOF. Note that a blank row will be interpreted by Excel as BOF or EOF. |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + F | Bring up Find/Replace dialog box. |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Z | Undo last action |
| Shortcut | Home Key | Return to the beginning of the row |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + ; (semicolon) | Enter the date |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Shift + : (colon) | Enter the time |
| Shortcut | Alt + ‘ (apostrophe) | Find out about the style within the cell. (Note: cell must have data) |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Shift + ~ | Apply the general number format |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Shift + $ | Turn numbers into dollars |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Shift + % | Make numbers a percentage |
Visio:
| TAG | Shortcut | To Do…. |
| Shortcut | F1 | Help |
| Shortcut | F5 | Full screen mode |
| Shortcut | F6 | Toggle through Open Active Shapes Menu |
| Shortcut | F7 | Spell Check |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + F | Bring up Find dialog box |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Z | Undo last action |
| Tip | Customize Tool Bars: 1. Go to Tools Menu 2. Select Customize 3. Drag command or menu to a tool bar.Recommendation: Add commonly used alignment and grouping commands to tool bar. |
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| Bug Workaround | Problem: Ctrl-C of a diagram will often not correctly copy to Word the box and line attributes such as color and line width.Workaround: Use the Menu -> Edit -> Copy Drawing command. |
Windows:
| TAG | Shortcut | To Do…. |
| Shortcut | Win Logo Key +L | Lock Computer:Equivalent to CTRL-Alt-Del and then selecting “Lock Computer” |
| Shortcut | Alt + Tab | Brings up “Alt-Tab” dialog to switch between open applications in clockwise order. Keep tabbing while holding the Alt key to select application once Alt key is released.If you add the Shift Key during the above, the order reverses to counter-clockwise. |
Word:
| TAG | Shortcut | To Do…. |
| Shortcut | F1 | Help |
| Shortcut | F4 | Repeat last command |
| Shortcut | F5 | Bring up Find/Replace/Go To dialog |
| Shortcut | F7 | Spell Check |
| Shortcut | Shift + Arrow Key orEnd Key or Left Mouse | Select a range of text: Shift + Any Arrow key — selects from cursor in direction of arrow key strike(s) Shift + End Key — selects from cursor to end of line Shift + Left Mouse key — selects from cursor to new mark set by Left Mouse key |
| Shortcut | Left Mouse Key double-click | Select word containing cursor |
| Shortcut | Left Mouse Key triple-click | Select paragraph containing cursor |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + A | Select all the text within your document |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + F | Bring up Find/Replace/Go To dialog |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + C | Copy selected text |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + X | Cut selected text |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + V | Paste selected text |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Z | Undo last action |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + B | Bold text of word containing cursor |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + I | Italicize text of word containing cursor |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + U | Underline text of word containing cursor |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Shift + < | Decrease font size of word containing cursor |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Shift + > | Increase font size of word containing cursor |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Shift + F, then use the arrowkeys or left mouse key to reach the new font | Change font |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Enter | Create page break |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + W | Close a document |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + S | Save a document |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + P | Print a document |
| Shortcut | Alt + Ctrl + I | Preview what you’re about to print |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + Alt + M | insert comment |
| Shortcut | Shift + F3 | Word capitalization — This is a 3 way toggle of selected text: no caps, cap first letter, all caps |
| Shortcut | Ctrl + A then F9 | To update all fields in a document: Select All (Ctrl + A or click ‘Select All’ on the Edit menu) and then press F9. This will regenerate all fields including TOC, tables of figures and all cross-references in the document. |
| Bug workaround | Problem: Sometimes the Spell checker gets stuck using a ‘French’ Dictionary when the language used is English:Workaround: 1. Control Panel -> Regional Language Options -> check that all options set to English 2. In Word: Review Menu -> Proofing section -> Set Language Icon -> set to English and set default. 3. If #2 doesn’t work, then Select entire document and do it again. (Word can support a different spell check language per paragraph) |
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| Bug workaround | Custom Caption labels do not persist across sessions.Problem: If you have created custom caption labels (e.g. Model, Use Case, DAR), Word does NOT save the custom labels across sessions. You don’t lose existing items tagged with these custom labels when you re-open your Word doc, but you won’t be able to add additional figures labeled with the custom label and you also can’t find them by type in the cross-reference list.
Workaround: You must insert a dummy entry somewhere in your document (recommend put at very end) for each custom label you wish to use to label additional figures or to add additional cross-references. This will force Word to add the label to the Captions label drop-down list and also the cross-reference insert list. Remember to delete the dummy entries. |
