Quickly Entering Data

One of the nifty shortcuts provided in Excel allows you to copy data from the cell above the current cell. All you need to do is press Ctrl+". (That's a quote mark, which means you must hold down the Shift key as well.)

As an example of how this works, let's suppose you enter the number 12345 in cell A4. If you then move to cell A5 and press Ctrl+", 12345 appears in the cell. If you then go to cell A6 and type ABC and press Ctrl+", you end up with ABC12345 in the cell.

In reality, you could also use Ctrl+' (that's an apostrophe) to copy data if you wanted. There is only a slight difference in the way that Ctrl+' and Ctrl+" work, and that difference only applies when using the shortcuts to copy numeric values (including dates and times). The Ctrl+" shortcut retains the formatting of whatever is being copied, but the Ctrl+' shortcut does not.

As an example, let's assume that cell A5 contains the formatted value 12.34%. If you position the cursor in cell A6 and press Ctrl+", then Excel copies 12.34%. If, instead, you use Ctrl+' then Excel copies 0.1234.

There is another shortcut that should be mentioned: Ctrl+D. Given the A4 and A5 scenario described already, selecting A5 and pressing Ctrl+D will copy whatever is in cell A4 into cell A5. In that way it is similar to the two shortcuts already described. Where Ctrl+D differs, however, is if you are in edit mode. For instance, select cell A5, type ABC, and then press Ctrl+D —nothing happens because you are in edit mode. Ctrl+" and Ctrl+' will work in this situation just fine, as already described.

The other place where these three shortcuts differ is when cell A4 contains a formula. Let's say, for instance, that cell A4 contains the simple formula =A2+A3 and that the result of this formula is 57. If you select cell A5, what is actually copied into that cell depends on which shortcut key you use:

Ctrl+D: =A3+A4
Ctrl+": 57
Ctrl+': =A2+A3

Note that the difference between Ctrl+D and Ctrl+' is that the former updates references in the formula while the latter does not—it is a straight copy. In the case of Ctrl+", what is copied is the result of the formula in cell A4, not the formula itself.

These shortcuts can be real handy when you are entering data that has a lot of similarities within it—perhaps inventory numbers or part numbers. Give it a try!

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (7925) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Quickly Entering Data.