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Excel - Boost Your Workflow with Custom Shortcut Keys for Excel, Notepad, and More! - Episode 589

919 views · Published 22 June 2009 · 3:51 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial - Boost Your Workflow with Custom Shortcut Keys for Excel, Notepad, and More!

Welcome back to the MrExcel netcast! In today's video, we have a great tip that was sent in by one of our viewers, Bill from Addison, Texas. But before we dive into the tip, I want to mention that today is September 10th and I'm actually recording this ahead of time because I have a busy week of fall Power Excel seminars coming up. I'll be in Chicago tomorrow, September 11th, followed by Birmingham, Alabama and a private seminar in Dallas. Then, I'll be back in Akron, Ohio on Friday, September 14th. 

Next week, we have a full week of seminars in Chicago from the 18th to the 23rd, along with my colleague Mike Alexander. And on Monday, September 24th, we'll be in Roanoke, Virginia for a short seminar, followed by a full day in Fort Wayne, Indiana on October 3rd and Columbus, Indiana on October 4th. Finally, we'll be back in Akron, Ohio for a full day on October 5th. If you're in any of these areas and would like to attend one of our seminars, just head to the MrExcel website and click on the link at the top of the homepage for a complete list of upcoming seminars. We always have a link to register for these events and I would love to meet some of our podcast viewers in person. 

Now, let's get to the tip that Bill from Addison shared with us. A few weeks ago, I showed you how to quickly transfer data from Excel to Notepad. But Bill has taken it a step further and created a shortcut key to access Notepad with just one keystroke. He uses Ctrl Alt M, but when I tried it on my PC, it didn't work. So I asked Bill for his secret and he showed me a great way to do this without cluttering up your desktop. All you have to do is open Windows Explorer, go to "Documents and Settings," then your username, and create a new folder called "Key Short." 

From there, you can open Windows Explorer with your new shortcut key and easily access any application on your start menu. For example, if you want a shortcut to Snagit, just click and drag the Snagit icon to the Key Short folder. Then, use Alt + Enter to access the properties and assign a shortcut key. Bill uses Ctrl S for Snagit, but you can use any key that will help you remember the shortcut. This is a great way to quickly access the applications you use most often, such as Excel (Ctrl X), Excel 2007 (Ctrl Alt 7), Notepad (Ctrl N), Camtasia (Ctrl C), and Quicktime (Ctrl Alt Q). It's a simple yet effective tip that will save you time and make your workflow more efficient. 

I want to thank Bill from Addison, Texas for sharing this tip with us. He already has one of my Excel Master pins, so he's definitely a pro when it comes to Excel. And thank you to all of our viewers for stopping by. Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for another netcast from MrExcel. See you then!

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Bill from Addison TX sent in a great tip to allow you to open Excel with Ctrl Alt X, Notepad with Ctrl Alt N. Nominally, this makes the technique in Episode 578 faster, but in reality it will make everything you do in Windows much faster. Episode 589 shows you how.

This blog is the video podcast companion to the book, Learn Excel from MrExcel. Download a new two minute video every workday to learn one of the 277 tips from the book!

Table of Contents:
(00:00) Introduction and upcoming seminars 
(01:26) Cool tip from Bill in Addison, Texas 
(02:05) How to create a shortcut key for frequently used applications 
(03:00) Not necessarily excel related, but a fast way to launch applications 
(03:30) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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This video answers these common search terms:
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