Adding formulas into your sheets, like nested IF statements and conditional reminders, builds really powerful automation into your workflows. While it's fun to build complex formulas, today we'd like to take some time to tell you about the little things: our favorite shortcuts. These simple tricks take just seconds, and can make repetitive tasks so much easier.
Let’s start with some keyboard shortcuts:
- Open a Sheet Use ctrl+/ (PC) or command+/ (Mac) This one is a favorite on our team! Use these keystrokes to display the Open a Sheet form, and you’ll be able to quickly search your entire library of sheets.
- Insert The Insert key (PC) or control+i (Mac) is another classic. Use this shortcut to automatically insert a new row above the one you’re working on in your sheet. Freedom from the mouse!
- Copy / Paste Dare we say it... using ctrl+c (PC) or command+c (Mac) to Copy and ctrl+v (PC) or command+v (Mac) to Paste may be the handiest keyboard shortcuts of them all. If you’re not already using these shortcuts, try them out – you’ll be amazed with how much easier they make your life.
Copy / Paste also make it easy transfer small amounts of data from an Excel file into a
sheet. Single-click on a cell in Excel and use ctrl+c (PC) or command+c (Mac) to copy the data. Next, open up your sheet in Smartsheet, single-click on a cell, and use ctrl+v or command+v to paste it in. These same steps will work for copying and pasting a number of cells or rows in Excel. Simply single-click on a cell to paste into your sheet, and the data will appear in the same order that it does in Excel.
- These three shortcuts are just a sampling of the keyboard shortcuts available in Smartsheet, so be sure to check out all these other shortcuts.
Here are some other shortcuts, special to Smartsheet:
- Date Columns In date columns, the letter “t” means “today,” meaning when you type it into a cell in a date column, the cell will instantly populate with today’s date. Next, try typing “t+5” – you’ll see the cell populate with a date that is five days from today. Pretty slick!
- Drag-Fill Use this feature to quickly copy a formula, or cell data from one cell to multiple more in your sheet. Select a cell by clicking on it, then click-and-drag by the bottom right corner to copy either cell data or a formula into the adjacent cell.
Drag-Fill is particularly powerful if you want to use it to repeat a pattern down a column, for example listing the numbers 1-100 on the rows on your sheet.
Start by typing the numbers 1,2, and 3 in the first three rows of the column. Highlight all three cells (click the top cell and drag down to the third before releasing your click). Mouse over to the bottom, right corner of these three cells – you’ll know you’re in the right spot when your mouse icon turns into a cross-hair.
Click and drag the bottom, right corner of the cell down the length of the column. The dotted border that shows up as you drag down tells you which cells with be affected when you release your click.
When you release your click, Smartsheet will automatically continue the numbering pattern down through the column.
[Learn more about drag-fill and copy/paste in Smartsheet]
What are your favorite shortcuts? Let us know here!
Til next week, dig in and explore!
- Support Team