Excel: 15 Hidden Shortcuts—One Button

Key insights

• Go To Special: A single Excel command that opens a menu of over 15 useful actions — select blanks, locate errors, find notes/comments, distinguish formulas from hard values, jump to cells with conditional formatting, and select objects for bulk edits.
  
• Common scenarios: Use it to clean blanks, fix formatting issues, manage dashboard objects, audit financial models by finding hard-coded values, locate error values, edit specific formulas, and review notes or comments.
  
• How to access: Press F5 or Ctrl+G to open the Go To dialog, then click Special. You can also add the command to the Quick Access Toolbar or ribbon for one-click access.
  
• Time-saving actions: Select and delete empty cells, replace or edit many formulas at once, remove or highlight errors, and bulk-select objects — all in seconds instead of manual steps.
  
• Customization and learning: Add preferred shortcuts to the toolbar, learn from the contextual descriptions in the dialog, and reduce the need to memorize many keyboard combos.
  
• Best practices: Run Go To Special on a copy before mass edits, combine it with filters and Find/Replace, and use it to validate financial models by separating formulas from hard-coded numbers to lower error risk.
  

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Quick take

Kenji Farré (Kenji Explains) [MVP] released a practical YouTube video that demonstrates how to access more than a dozen powerful Excel actions through a single command. In particular, the clip highlights the Go To Special capability and explains seven real-world scenarios where it speeds up common tasks. Consequently, the video promises immediate time savings for users who work with messy or large spreadsheets, especially in finance and reporting. Furthermore, Farré offers a sample workbook alongside the tutorial so viewers can practice the techniques on their own files.

How the single-button approach works

Farré frames the feature as a control center: instead of remembering many keyboard combos, you trigger one command and then choose from multiple targeted actions. Specifically, the technique relies on Excel’s Go To Special menu to select blanks, formulas, errors, notes, conditional formatting cells, objects and more, all from the same dialog. As a result, users can perform bulk operations—such as deleting blanks, converting hard-coded values, or locating errors—without manually scanning every cell. Moreover, Farré walks through the steps live, showing both the selection and the follow-up edits so viewers understand the full workflow.

Seven scenarios shown in the video

In the demonstration, Farré applies the method across seven practical scenarios that many Excel users encounter. For example, he shows how to find and remove blanks in tables, which greatly helps when preparing data for lookups or pivot tables; next, he locates formatting-driven cells and dashboard objects to tidy visual reports quickly. Then, he switches to financial-modeling use cases, where identifying formulas versus hard-coded values can prevent calculation errors and support model audits. Finally, he covers error values, bulk-editing formulas, and locating notes or comments, giving viewers a compact set of patterns to reuse.

Tradeoffs and where caution is needed

While the centralized approach improves speed and discoverability, it also introduces tradeoffs that the video acknowledges indirectly. For instance, bulk selections followed by edits reduce repetitive work but increase the risk of accidental mass changes if you don’t verify the selection first; therefore, users must combine the technique with validation steps such as previewing or using Undo. Additionally, although the method reduces the need to memorize keyboard shortcuts, it depends on the user knowing which choice to make inside the menu, which still requires some judgment and experience. Finally, compatibility differences between Excel versions and custom interfaces can affect availability or behavior, so teams should test the approach in their environment before applying it to production models.

Balancing speed, control and collaboration

Farré’s walkthrough highlights an important balance between speed and control: the technique yields rapid results, yet it demands deliberate checks to avoid errors in shared files. Consequently, power users will likely pair the method with version control or backup routines so that large edits remain reversible. Equally, in collaborative settings, one person’s bulk change can unintentionally disrupt another user’s calculations or named ranges, so coordination and clear comments are essential. Therefore, adopting this approach successfully involves not only learning the command but also updating team practices to include safeguards and documentation.

Practical limitations and next steps for users

The video makes clear that Go To Special is a versatile tool but not a catch-all solution: it handles many selection tasks, yet it doesn’t replace careful design, error-checking formulas, or robust data validation. Moreover, users working with extremely large or complex workbooks may encounter performance delays or ambiguous selections when many objects or conditional formats are present. Nevertheless, Farré’s examples offer a compact, repeatable pattern that most Excel users can adopt within minutes and refine over time. For readers who want to practice, the author supplies a sample file in the video description, while the walkthrough itself functions as both a quick reference and a teaching demo.

Bottom line

Overall, Kenji Farré’s tutorial provides a clear and actionable introduction to unlocking multiple Excel capabilities from one interface point. The approach reduces cognitive load for routine tasks, increases productivity for data cleanup and modeling, and surfaces lesser-known options to everyday users. However, teams should weigh the benefits against the risks of bulk edits and ensure appropriate checks are in place before applying changes to critical files. In short, the video is a useful resource for anyone seeking to work faster in Excel while learning to balance speed with careful validation.

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