Use CTRL + P to get to the print dialogue box - much quicker than waving the mouse about.

Use CTRL + S to save a named file. If you haven't named your file yet it will take you to the save as dialogue box.

Use CTRL + O to reach the Open File dialogue box.

Use SHIFT + F2 to open up a memo field so you can see what you are doing. Use CTRL + ENTER for a new paragraph without closing the box.

Access

Access

Access

If you use any of the drawing abilities of Access, fields, text labels or other objects in forms or reports you can move them with the cursor keys more easily than with the mouse. Vertical or horizontal moves are less likely to wander off-line. Use CTRL and cursor keys for smaller movement increments.

Use =NOW() for a dynamic Date:Time field

Select a row with Shift + Space bar or a column with CTRL + Spacebar

Use CTRL + ` (grave accent next to #1) to toggle between showing results and showing formulas. Good for fault finding.

Excel

Excel

Use Shift + F11 to get a new worksheet to the left of the selected worksheet.

Precede numbers in Excel with an apostrophe ( ' ) to store them as text. Good for dialling codes etc. The ( ' ) is visible in the formula bar but not in the cell and they don't print. If you have lots to enter then better to format the column for text

Use CTRL + 1 to open the cell format dialogue box. (Works in Excel 2007 too - to save having to look for it!)

To enter the same data in a range of cells select them first then type the contents that you want to go in every cell.  Instead of pressing the Enter key use CTRL + Enter and your text will be in every cell.

Use CTRL + Tab to switch to the next open Workbook

Excel

Excel

If you use #,##0.00_);(#,##0.00) in the custom section of the cell format dialogue box you will get columns where the pence or zeros line up properly whether they are positive or negative. The bit that does it is the _) just at the end of the positive sector. It forces Excel to allow for whatever character width comes after the _underscore.

Excel 2003

The Sort dialogue box from the Data menu only offers a three way sort (Excel 2007 offers more) but you can still achieve a four way (or more) sort by using the A-Z or Z-A Icons instead. First decide what order you want for the sort - for example County, Town, Company, Last Name. Click in the Last Name column and use the A-Z (or Z-A) for the first sort. Click in the Company column then hold down CTRL and click on A-Z for the second sort. Click in the Town column and Hold CTRL while you click on A-Z for the third sort and then finally click in County and hold down CTRL and click A-Z for the final sort. The trick, as you can see, is to reverse the order in which you sort the columns so that you do your prime sort (County) last.

Excel 2003

Hold down CTRL as you rotate the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in or out.

PowerPoint

In a PowerPoint presentation pressing "W" will toggle the screen between your presentation and white.

In a PowerPoint presentation pressing "B" will toggle the screen between your presentation and black.

Holding Shift down as you draw a circle will only allow a perfect circle. Hold Shift down as you draw the perfect square as well. Shift also takes the kinks out of drawing long lines but does allow lines at incremental angles between horizontal and vertical.

Use ALT + Shift + # (up cursor) to move bullet points up
Use ALT + Shift + ↓ (down cursor) to move bullet points down
Use ALT + Shift + ! (Left cursor) to promote bullet points
Use ALT + Shift + " (right cursor) to demote bullet points

Use Ctrl + E to centre text. Ctrl + L for left aligned, guess what Ctrl + R does. Finally you can turn on full justification with Ctrl + J

Word

Use CTRL + Alt + R for the Registered Trademark Symbol ®

Use Shift + F5 to go back to the place you were working at when you saved and closed Word. This saves a lot of time on large documents.

Use CTRL+ Shift + = for superscript and CTRL + = for subscript. Lets you create ^c/_o and 50^o C etc.

Use CTRL+Shift+8 (*) to toggle formatting marks ¶ on and off. 

Select some text then use CTRL + SHIFT + . (>) to see the text grow. Use CTRL + SHIFT + , (<) to make it shrink. It will increment font sizes but only offer those which your default printer can handle.

Use Shift + F9 to toggle between showing a field and the result of that field and use ALT + F9 to toggles between all the fields and the results of those fields. This is very useful for revealing merge fields, dates etc in mailing letters. 

Split a table (or column) with CTRL + SHIFT + Enter

* My initials are IB so for the above example I would use the code YFIBT but would use YSIB for Yours sincerely, your name - no title

CTRL + Shift - Hyphen will get you a non-breaking hyphen.

CTRL + Shift - Spacebar will get you a non-breaking space.

Get a new line (but not a new paragraph) with Shift + Enter. This is great for adding a bit more information without creating a new bullet point.

Insert a page break with CTRL + Enter instead of using lots of Enters

Use CTRL + M to create an indent. Use CTRL + Shift + M to un-indent (Outdent?)

Word

Word 2003

Shift + F3 will change the case (capitalisation) of selected text. (Gives a variety of results)

Use Shift + Enter to give a soft line break. This is handy to add a bit of text below a numbered or bulleted heading because it doesn't create a new paragraph and therefore doesn't add a new number.

Use Alt + F9 to toggle between displaying fields and the results of those fields. This is handy for spotting bookmarks, date fields and merge fields. Use Shift + F9 to toggle just the field you have selected.

Use CTRL + Tab to get a tab in a #Word table or use Tab on its own to move to the next cell.

To get the smallest possible margins - perhaps for a poster or sign - go to the page layout dialogue box and set all the margins to zero. Click on OK and Word will offer to "fix" the settings and will set them all to the minimum that your default printer can cope with. This saves a lot of time and guesswork.

Use CTRL + F for "Find" and CTRL + H for "Find & Replace" in all versions of Word. Take a moment to look at the "More" and "Special" buttons on the dialogue box too. Very useful for stripping out character marks and double spaces.

Double click a word to highlight it then use Shift + F7 to open the thesaurus.