Are you getting tired on always grabbing the mouse when you are working in Excel? Especially, when the mouse just isn’t behaving – you know, sometimes you are just having a “bad mouse” day!

Well, even though Microsoft Excel 2010 seems very mouse driven, you can still use the keyboard to perform some of the actions that you need. I am sure that you are familiar with the old standards of Ctrl + N to get a new workbook, Ctrl + S to save a workbook, and Ctrl + O to open a workbook, just to name a few.

If you have been using Excel for versions prior to Excel 2007, you could even use the keyboard to pull down menus from the menu bar. But once Office 2007 and Office 2010 came out, there are no more menu bars. Does that mean that the keyboard shortcut keys no longer work? No! The common control keyboard shortcuts still work, but can anything to work with the ribbons? Excel 2010 has not forgotten about those of us who like using the keyboard shortcut keys. They are different, but so much better than they used to be!

When you open Excel 2010, your ribbon resembles this illustration.

How does this work? Once Excel is opened, you simply press down the Alt key and your ribbon now changes to this:

By pressing the letter under the ribbon choice, you will move to that ribbon. As an example, I will go to the insert ribbon by simply pressing the letter N. It is not case sensitive. Now I am looking at the Insert ribbon, and I now see what are called Key Tips.

I can bring up the Shapes drop down by typing the letter SH. The ribbon now looks like this:

Now at this point, you will need to use the mouse to select and draw the shape that you would like to include. It’s fun just to try out the different Key Tips. Go ahead – you just might like them!

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