F4 to Repeat the Last Action

March 05, 2018 - by Bill Jelen

There is a useful key in Excel that leads a secret double-life. Most people know that F4 is famous for adding dollar signs to your formula references. But do you know what F4 does when you are not in Edit mode?

If you ask someone who uses Excel 20-40 hours a week about F4, they will likely say it is the shortcut to put $ signs in references. Press F4 once to make an absolute reference $F$1, press F4 twice to lock only the row. Press F4 three times to lock only the column.

But when Excel is not in Edit mode, F4 knows a million other tricks. F4 will repeat the last command that you performed.

Let's say that you just formatted D4 with an odd pink fill. You had to open the Fill dropdown, go to More Colors, type in the RGB values.

Now, any time that you press F4, the activecell will fill with pink. It is fast: Right Arrow twice, F4, Down Arrow twice, F4, Left Arrow Twice, F4. You get the idea. I can do all the cell faster than I can type this sentence.

F4 is very versatile. It is great for formatting, inserting rows, deleting columns. It lets you do something over and over and over. In the example above, I probably could have worked out a conditional formatting plan using MOD and ROW and COLUMN, but before I could even start to write that formula, I was able to press F4 11 times and be done with it.

Next time you have to do a task over and over and over, give F4 a spin.

It is mouse-free Monday. You will be faster in Excel if you learn some keyboard shortcuts. I am suggesting that you try to give up your mouse in Excel for one hour each Monday. I will provide a new Excel Keyboard Technique each Monday.

Title Photo: Kelli Tungay / Unsplash