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Little Known Excel Shortcut #13

By BankersBall on Oct 21, 2007 in Excel, Excel Shortcuts

A reader writes in with the question: “Do you know of any keyboard shortcut to increase and decrease decimal in Excel? I’ve been trying for weeks to find something, but haven’t been able to. I’ve heard its not possible unless you just program a macro.” We come up with a few workarounds…

Here are four ideas, none are perfect but may help for the macro-less.

1) Take 2: Ctrl + Shift + 1 = adds two decimal points. (Ctrl + Shift + 4 = adds two decimal points and $ symbol)

2) The Tab Heavy Method: Alt, then Ctrl + Tab (should land you on your second-level icon menu), then Ctrl + Shift + Tab (to get you to your formatting icon menu), then Tab (or Shift + Tab) over to the +decimal or -decimal icons.

3) Format Cells, That Old Standby: Ctrl + 1 to open the Format Cells menu, then Alt + C to get you to the category box, then you can shortcut or down/up arrow you way to the Number field and same goes for setting the number of decimal places.

4) The Copy Method: If you already have a number on your spreadsheet with the appropriate decimal, then you can just Alt + e + s + t it and apply it.

Anyone else know of one?

30 Comment(s)

On Oct 21, 2007, hedge fund analyst said:

This is a trick an ex-banker from Houlihan taught me and perhaps the only thing ever said by a Wharton-grad I’ve found worthwhile.

It’s pretty useful in that you can shortcut almost any of the toolbar buttons using this method (I don’t think it works on color fill or font color though).

1.) Right click on the formatting toolbar and go to “Customize”

2.) After the Customize window pops up, you can still right click on the Increase or Decrease Decimal buttons on the toolbar

3.) A menu will pop down. Edit the “Name” field to whatever character you want it to be. Leave the “&” in front of it to signify that it will be a shortcut (e.g. I have mine named “&/” because alt+/ doesn’t have anything assigned to it otherwise).

4.) Change the button style to “Image and Text”

5.) Hit close on the “Customize” window to exit

Now whatever character you selected should be next to the decimal button with an underline. You can alt+character to activate it (hitting alt+shift+character will do the opposite).

This will become so ingrained that you will be incredibly frustrated when you hop on someone else’s machine and they don’t have alt+/ assigned.
On Oct 22, 2007, pcostell said:

“4) The Copy Method: If you already have a number on your spreadsheet with the appropriate decimal, then you can just Alt + e + s + v it and apply it.”

Are you for serious, BBall?!?!
Alt-e,s,v pastes values, you mean alt-e,s,t.
Have you ever actually used excel?
On Oct 22, 2007, pcostell said:

oh and hedge fund analyst-

That is the most baller thing ever. Thanks for the tip.
On Oct 22, 2007, AR said:

I was the one who sent in the original question. The technique described above (with the alt /) is excellent. Thanks! and Thanks BankersBall Editor for posting the question.
On Oct 22, 2007, PE Associate said:

Absolutely amazing. That has been driving me crazy since I lost my banking macros. Can’t believe I never learned that before.

Now I just need to find a way to rebuild the proprietary trace ALL dependents/precedents.

Thanks.
On Oct 22, 2007, BankersBall said:

jesus. mistake fixed.
On Oct 22, 2007, Rory said:

Similar to hedge fund analyst’s method (though slightly less elegant), go to Tools > Customize > Commands > Format. Find the Increase/Decrease decimal commands and drag them into the format menu. Right click on Decrease Decimal and change it to read “Decrease Decima&l”. Now you can use Alt+O+I (Increase) and Alt+O+L (Decrease).
On Oct 23, 2007, valuanalyst said:

Never lose your macros! i use training the street’s macro.. cntrl shift > or
On Oct 23, 2007, Mark said:

A subscription to DealMaven Fast Track:
http://www.dealmaven.com/products/FastTrackXL/
On Oct 23, 2007, blah said:

Dudes. just buy deal maven’s fast track product. it has a macro to increase or decrease the decimals. it has also has a lot of other great shortcuts and doesn’t suffer from the bugs of home made macro kits.
On Oct 24, 2007, jay said:

On a similar note — is there a way to map the “center across selection” formatting option?
On Oct 26, 2007, ExcelGOD said:

Even better - taking Rory’s point a step further; drag the Increase/Decrease decimal command buttons to the top menu (should be placed at the leftmost part of the menu) so that when you hit ALT it selects one of the Increase/Decrease decimal commands. Right click on Decrease or Increase decimal command button, click customize, right click AGAIN on Decrease or Increase decimal command button, the namebox should appear - change the text to read “&1″ for Decrease decimal command button, and “&2″ for Increase decimal command button.

RESULTS - whenever you hold ALT down and press 1, excel activates the command and increases the decimal as long as ALT and 1 is being hold, same for ALT 2 (increases) - this is the most simulative shortcut to a macro, but actually not a macro.

Cheers!
On Oct 30, 2007, Associate said:

For centering across cells, assign the following code to a custom button (I have it in a module in my personal work book) and assign a keystroke using the ampersand as above.

Sub cAS()
With Selection
.HorizontalAlignment = xlCenterAcrossSelection
.MergeCells = False
End With
End Sub
On Nov 8, 2007, Matt said:

I had the same problem… Finally just programmed an Excel add-in that has most of the useful shortcuts that Excel sorely needs. Feel free to download a copy if you want at http://www.matthodan.com/projects

Hope this is helpful!
Matt
On Dec 18, 2007, ConsultantNinja said:

Here’s a bunch of macros built into to add keyboard shortcuts for number formatting and merging cells, among other things.

http://www.consultantninja.com/2007/10/my-personalxls-macros-template-example.html
On Mar 12, 2008, simon said:

awesome trick man.. have always wanted the decimal thing… hate going up and down using the touch pad
On Mar 18, 2008, Matt said:

I updated the SimpleShortcuts Excel Add-In to include several additional features and hotkeys based on the feedback people sent over the past few months. Hopefully, this is helpful to those ballers who don’t want to pay for DealMaven in these hard times. Feel free to download a copy if you want at http://www.simpleshortcuts.net

Matt
On May 21, 2008, Tony said:

DealMaven doesn’t sell its product any more. As far as I can tell, it was bought and shutdown by the acquirer so I would highly recommend against continuing to use their product and find an alternative like simpleshortcuts.
On May 22, 2008, JIT said:

DealMaven was bought by Factset so if you use them then the same products will still be available. Then again why pay anything if you can get similiar macros for free.
On Jun 2, 2008, Tony said:

Factset does not sell the old DealMaven products. In fact, if you try to purchase any of the products you can’t. All you get now is a bunch of broken links. Like I said, the acquirer (Factset) has clearly shutdown this product and it is NOT supported any longer. It says so on their website. You need to use something else.
On Jun 9, 2008, adam said:

hedge fund analyst… ive been looking for a shortcut like this forever! thanks for the tip
On Jun 10, 2008, bigwig said:

I’ve been using simpleshortcuts for a few months now and it works great… nothing fancy but it gets the job done
On Jun 11, 2008, Associate said:

This is a great program…FACTSET only sells DealMaven through a FACTSET package that you need to purchase, you can no longer buy it alone. FACTSET costs roughly $45,000 a year, but I don’t know if that is the minimum package. The 45,000 is one of the cheaper offerings. T

Simpleshortcuts is a really good replacement, nice work.
On Jun 13, 2008, Associate said:

Just a recommendation, is there any way on the Trace Precedents in Simple Shortcuts where you can see the formula in the pop-up window? It would be really useful for long or complex formulas. Also, one in a while, tracing a choose function does not work. BUT overall, great program and definitely worth not having to spend a ridiculous amount on Factset - Fasttrack.
On Jun 19, 2008, Tony said:

I stand corrected. The program is still available for $45,000. LOL. Hmmm, $45,000 vs free - which should I choose? Wow, the people at FACTSET paid $14 million for this program. They have to be the dumbest people on earth. Hats off to the DealMaven people. They are the best con artists ever and really pulled the wool over on FACTSET.
On Jun 19, 2008, bigwig said:

Factset bought a lot more than some short cut functionality. They have removed the retail component of DM and are using it as an add-on for banks that already use Factset for research. It’s used as an edge over their competitors like a capitaliq. If you pay $45k you get Factset not just the short cut stuff.
On Jun 19, 2008, Tony said:

Let me see - FACTSET bought DealMaven who had a third-rate (WallstreetPrep and TTS run circles around these guys) online training program and this tool that does what Simpleshortcuts does for free. Yes, you are right. They bought a lot for $14 million. Wow, I smell a genius at work here.
On Jun 19, 2008, bigwig said:

The point is they acquired more than just the fasttrack product. Do your homework before you start saying it was or wasn’t a good deal. You clearly don’t know enough surrounding the rationale for the transaction to make that assessment.
On Jun 19, 2008, Tony said:

Well, that is true. Maybe DealMaven had some magic formula for making gold out of lead that FACTSET acquired. They must have because the DealMaven people sure came out of this smelling like a rose, but I think at the end of the day all FACTSET ended up with was lead.

But, please tell us what was so special about DealMaven that makes it worth $14 million vs $0? Personally, I wouldn’t pay a dime for anything they offered since it was all third-rate junk. It is just a bunch of basic macros that a newly hired Investment Banker could write in an afternoon and the training was no better than a college textbook. Someone at FACTSET should be fired for buying this turkey.
On Oct 3, 2008, Do DD Before Making Statements said:

Dealmaven software did four things:

1. Macros mentioned ad-nauseum here
2. Presentation macros - will set up Powerpoint and Word files, Excel charts, etc that will conform to corporate format and color standards. Stupid tool, yes, but quite useful for pitchbook work.
3. Software that links and updates and links Excel tables and graphs that are pasted into Word or Powerpoint. Its called Preslink - if you use it to paste in tables or graphs from models, you can hit a command to automatically update as you change assumptions, refine models, etc. Will also link between values in cells to items in the text of Word or PPT. Will also sense an updated version of the Excel file and pull table from the updated version.
4. Linking software that will pull values from SEC filings and research reports and dump into Excel formulas - makes auditing to see the source of numbers in spreadsheets easier. Very useful for checking and auditing work done by analysts or India outsourcing teams.

The difference between this software and say Bloomberg or CapIQ is that this linking is somehow done behind the scenes - i.e. someone without the software package will see the values without needing the plug-ins.

Post a Comment

On Oct 21, 2007, hedge fund analyst said:

This is a trick an ex-banker from Houlihan taught me and perhaps the only thing ever said by a Wharton-grad I’ve found worthwhile.

It’s pretty useful in that you can shortcut almost any of the toolbar buttons using this method (I don’t think it works on color fill or font color though).

1.) Right click on the formatting toolbar and go to “Customize”

2.) After the Customize window pops up, you can still right click on the Increase or Decrease Decimal buttons on the toolbar

3.) A menu will pop down. Edit the “Name” field to whatever character you want it to be. Leave the “&” in front of it to signify that it will be a shortcut (e.g. I have mine named “&/” because alt+/ doesn’t have anything assigned to it otherwise).

4.) Change the button style to “Image and Text”

5.) Hit close on the “Customize” window to exit

Now whatever character you selected should be next to the decimal button with an underline. You can alt+character to activate it (hitting alt+shift+character will do the opposite).

This will become so ingrained that you will be incredibly frustrated when you hop on someone else’s machine and they don’t have alt+/ assigned.

On Oct 22, 2007, pcostell said:

“4) The Copy Method: If you already have a number on your spreadsheet with the appropriate decimal, then you can just Alt + e + s + v it and apply it.”

Are you for serious, BBall?!?!
Alt-e,s,v pastes values, you mean alt-e,s,t.
Have you ever actually used excel?

oh and hedge fund analyst-

That is the most baller thing ever. Thanks for the tip.

On Oct 22, 2007, AR said:

I was the one who sent in the original question. The technique described above (with the alt /) is excellent. Thanks! and Thanks BankersBall Editor for posting the question.

On Oct 22, 2007, PE Associate said:

Absolutely amazing. That has been driving me crazy since I lost my banking macros. Can’t believe I never learned that before.

Now I just need to find a way to rebuild the proprietary trace ALL dependents/precedents.

Thanks.

On Oct 22, 2007, BankersBall said:

jesus. mistake fixed.

On Oct 22, 2007, Rory said:

Similar to hedge fund analyst’s method (though slightly less elegant), go to Tools > Customize > Commands > Format. Find the Increase/Decrease decimal commands and drag them into the format menu. Right click on Decrease Decimal and change it to read “Decrease Decima&l”. Now you can use Alt+O+I (Increase) and Alt+O+L (Decrease).

On Oct 23, 2007, valuanalyst said:

Never lose your macros! i use training the street’s macro.. cntrl shift > or

On Oct 23, 2007, Mark said:

A subscription to DealMaven Fast Track:
http://www.dealmaven.com/products/FastTrackXL/

On Oct 23, 2007, blah said:

Dudes. just buy deal maven’s fast track product. it has a macro to increase or decrease the decimals. it has also has a lot of other great shortcuts and doesn’t suffer from the bugs of home made macro kits.

On Oct 24, 2007, jay said:

On a similar note — is there a way to map the “center across selection” formatting option?

On Oct 26, 2007, ExcelGOD said:

Even better - taking Rory’s point a step further; drag the Increase/Decrease decimal command buttons to the top menu (should be placed at the leftmost part of the menu) so that when you hit ALT it selects one of the Increase/Decrease decimal commands. Right click on Decrease or Increase decimal command button, click customize, right click AGAIN on Decrease or Increase decimal command button, the namebox should appear - change the text to read “&1″ for Decrease decimal command button, and “&2″ for Increase decimal command button.

RESULTS - whenever you hold ALT down and press 1, excel activates the command and increases the decimal as long as ALT and 1 is being hold, same for ALT 2 (increases) - this is the most simulative shortcut to a macro, but actually not a macro.

Cheers!

On Oct 30, 2007, Associate said:

For centering across cells, assign the following code to a custom button (I have it in a module in my personal work book) and assign a keystroke using the ampersand as above.

Sub cAS()
With Selection
.HorizontalAlignment = xlCenterAcrossSelection
.MergeCells = False
End With
End Sub

On Nov 8, 2007, Matt said:

I had the same problem… Finally just programmed an Excel add-in that has most of the useful shortcuts that Excel sorely needs. Feel free to download a copy if you want at http://www.matthodan.com/projects

Hope this is helpful!
Matt

On Dec 18, 2007, ConsultantNinja said:

Here’s a bunch of macros built into to add keyboard shortcuts for number formatting and merging cells, among other things.

http://www.consultantninja.com/2007/10/my-personalxls-macros-template-example.html

On Mar 12, 2008, simon said:

awesome trick man.. have always wanted the decimal thing… hate going up and down using the touch pad

On Mar 18, 2008, Matt said:

I updated the SimpleShortcuts Excel Add-In to include several additional features and hotkeys based on the feedback people sent over the past few months. Hopefully, this is helpful to those ballers who don’t want to pay for DealMaven in these hard times. Feel free to download a copy if you want at http://www.simpleshortcuts.net

Matt

On May 21, 2008, Tony said:

DealMaven doesn’t sell its product any more. As far as I can tell, it was bought and shutdown by the acquirer so I would highly recommend against continuing to use their product and find an alternative like simpleshortcuts.

On May 22, 2008, JIT said:

DealMaven was bought by Factset so if you use them then the same products will still be available. Then again why pay anything if you can get similiar macros for free.

On Jun 2, 2008, Tony said:

Factset does not sell the old DealMaven products. In fact, if you try to purchase any of the products you can’t. All you get now is a bunch of broken links. Like I said, the acquirer (Factset) has clearly shutdown this product and it is NOT supported any longer. It says so on their website. You need to use something else.

On Jun 9, 2008, adam said:

hedge fund analyst… ive been looking for a shortcut like this forever! thanks for the tip

On Jun 10, 2008, bigwig said:

I’ve been using simpleshortcuts for a few months now and it works great… nothing fancy but it gets the job done

On Jun 11, 2008, Associate said:

This is a great program…FACTSET only sells DealMaven through a FACTSET package that you need to purchase, you can no longer buy it alone. FACTSET costs roughly $45,000 a year, but I don’t know if that is the minimum package. The 45,000 is one of the cheaper offerings. T

Simpleshortcuts is a really good replacement, nice work.

On Jun 13, 2008, Associate said:

Just a recommendation, is there any way on the Trace Precedents in Simple Shortcuts where you can see the formula in the pop-up window? It would be really useful for long or complex formulas. Also, one in a while, tracing a choose function does not work. BUT overall, great program and definitely worth not having to spend a ridiculous amount on Factset - Fasttrack.

On Jun 19, 2008, Tony said:

I stand corrected. The program is still available for $45,000. LOL. Hmmm, $45,000 vs free - which should I choose? Wow, the people at FACTSET paid $14 million for this program. They have to be the dumbest people on earth. Hats off to the DealMaven people. They are the best con artists ever and really pulled the wool over on FACTSET.

On Jun 19, 2008, bigwig said:

Factset bought a lot more than some short cut functionality. They have removed the retail component of DM and are using it as an add-on for banks that already use Factset for research. It’s used as an edge over their competitors like a capitaliq. If you pay $45k you get Factset not just the short cut stuff.

Let me see - FACTSET bought DealMaven who had a third-rate (WallstreetPrep and TTS run circles around these guys) online training program and this tool that does what Simpleshortcuts does for free. Yes, you are right. They bought a lot for $14 million. Wow, I smell a genius at work here.

The point is they acquired more than just the fasttrack product. Do your homework before you start saying it was or wasn’t a good deal. You clearly don’t know enough surrounding the rationale for the transaction to make that assessment.

Well, that is true. Maybe DealMaven had some magic formula for making gold out of lead that FACTSET acquired. They must have because the DealMaven people sure came out of this smelling like a rose, but I think at the end of the day all FACTSET ended up with was lead.

But, please tell us what was so special about DealMaven that makes it worth $14 million vs $0? Personally, I wouldn’t pay a dime for anything they offered since it was all third-rate junk. It is just a bunch of basic macros that a newly hired Investment Banker could write in an afternoon and the training was no better than a college textbook. Someone at FACTSET should be fired for buying this turkey.

On Oct 3, 2008, Do DD Before Making Statements said:

Dealmaven software did four things:

1. Macros mentioned ad-nauseum here
2. Presentation macros - will set up Powerpoint and Word files, Excel charts, etc that will conform to corporate format and color standards. Stupid tool, yes, but quite useful for pitchbook work.
3. Software that links and updates and links Excel tables and graphs that are pasted into Word or Powerpoint. Its called Preslink - if you use it to paste in tables or graphs from models, you can hit a command to automatically update as you change assumptions, refine models, etc. Will also link between values in cells to items in the text of Word or PPT. Will also sense an updated version of the Excel file and pull table from the updated version.
4. Linking software that will pull values from SEC filings and research reports and dump into Excel formulas - makes auditing to see the source of numbers in spreadsheets easier. Very useful for checking and auditing work done by analysts or India outsourcing teams.

The difference between this software and say Bloomberg or CapIQ is that this linking is somehow done behind the scenes - i.e. someone without the software package will see the values without needing the plug-ins.