Handy Hotkeys: Ctrl++/Ctrl+-

In my work I use Microsoft Excel a lot. Every day for one thing or another. I am one of the few people I know who can use the Excel VLOOKUP data merge function with ease.

One of the best discoveries I made was Ctrl++ (hitting the “+” key with Ctrl held down) and its mate Ctrl+- (hitting the “-” key with Ctrl held down).

So often in Excel I need to insert or delete rows or columns—and doing it with the mouse (select, right-click, then use “Insert” or “Delete” rows) is painful.

Ctrl++ inserts rows or columns, and, as you might have guessed by now, Ctrl+- deletes rows or columns.

To insert rows or column you simply select the row of column before which you want blank rows or columns inserted and then do Ctrl++, as many times as you want if you want more than one blank row or column inserted.

If you select two, or three, or more rows, then Ctrl++ will insert that number of blank rows above the first of the selected rows. Ditto for columns.

In the following image I have selected three rows.

Then I hit Ctrl++ and it inserts three blank rows above the three I had selected.

To delete rows or columns you select the rows or columns to delete, then do Ctrl+-.

Obviously those that never use Excel will find this pretty boring.