Create Your Own Custom Office Shortcuts

Yesterday, I gave you some guides to built-in keyboard shortcuts for the most common Office programs.  Unfortunately, sometimes you want a shortcut for something that Office does not provide. Don't worry!  Microsoft has provided a way to deal with that, too.

This first method is probably the simplest.  If the item has a shortcut on the ribbon, right-click on that shortcut and select "Add to Quick Access Toolbar".  This will add the item to the very top, where it can be found and clicked quickly.  This also gives you a simple way to create a keyboard shortcut:  if you hit the Alt key, you will see a number underneath your new shortcut.  Pressing Alt+[Number] is your new keyboard shortcut.

If you cannot find an option for it on the ribbon, you can create a macro, which is a small amount of code telling the computer what you want it to do.  Fortunately, you don't need any knowledge of programming in order to create this macro.  Right-click on the ribbon and select "Customize the Ribbon".  Then, on the right side of the window, enable the "Developer" ribbon and press OK.

If you go to the developer ribbon, you will see an option for "Record Macro".  Clicking it will bring up a dialog box where you can assign a ribbon button or a keyboard shortcut to your Macro.  Once you change your settings and press OK,  you will be recording.  Everything you do will be translated into the code for your macro until you press the "Stop Recording" button that has replaced Record Macro.  Before you start recording, make sure everything is set exactly the way you want it.  I have created a few macros to do various types of pasting data (such as pasting values from formulas instead of the formulas I copied).  If I am recording in Excel and I click on cell C3, the macro will go to cell C3 of the current sheet every time I run it.  If you want it to paste in the current cell, you need to have it set to paste into a cell before you start recording.

While custom keyboard shortcuts are probably a tool for more advanced users, but they can be a great way to save time and automate tasks you perform regularly.