Calc is OpenOffice.org's answer to Microsoft Excel. With Calc, many of the same calculations and data management can be performed as in Excel. Unlike Microsoft Excel, Calc is free of charge to use and distribute as it is part of the OpenOffice.org open source productivity suite.
What about navigating inside a Calc spreadsheet? Do the same familiar keyboard shortcuts work? Here is a brief list of some keyboard shortcuts that work in Calc.
Basic Navigation Keyboard Shortcuts
A large spreadsheet with a lot of data can be quite daunting to navigate. But with just a few keystrokes, the desired data can be displayed. Many of the same keyboard shortcuts performed in Excel work the same in Calc.
- Enter - active cell goes down one cell
- Tab - active cell goes right one cell in same row
- Shift + Tab - active cell goes left one cell in same row
- Arrows (up, down, right, left) - active cell goes (up, down, right, left) by one cell
- Page Up - dsplays one page up
- Page Down - displays one page down
- Ctrl + Home - active cell goes to first cell of data
- Ctrl + End - active cell goes to last cell of data
- Shift + Any Arrow - make contiguous cell selections
Data Entry Keyboard Shortcuts
Not all of these keystrokes work the same in Calc and Excel. The shortcut F11, for example, wil bring up the Styles and Formatting dialog in Calc while in Excel the same shortcut will create a chart from selected data.
- Enter - completes cell entry and moves one cell down
- Ctrl + Enter - Insert a new line within a cell when typing
- F2 - puts cell into edit mode
- Alt + Enter - quick shortcut to fill selected cells with recent entry
- Esc - will cancel current entry when typing
- Delete - opens Delete dialog box, select contents for deletion
- Backspace - deletes cell contents without delete dialog
- Ctrl + F3 - create a name
- F11 - opens Styles & Formatting dialog box
Basic Keyboard Shortcuts
The good news is that many of the same basic keystrokes perform the same in Calc and Excel.
- Ctrl + N - opens a new document within same program
- Ctrl + S - saves the document
- Ctrl + P - prints the document
- Ctrl + O - opens an existing document
- Ctrl + Q - exits application
- Ctrl + X - will cut (move) selection
- Ctrl + C - will copy selection
- Ctrl + V - will paste selection into new location
- Ctrl + A - selects all
- Ctrl + F - opens Find & Replace dialog
- Ctrl + Z - will undo last action performed
- Ctrl + Y - will redo (or repeat) last action
- Ctrl + F2 - opens Function Wizard
- F7 - starts Spell Check
- Ctrl + F7 - starts Thesaurus
- Ctrl + W - closes window
- F1 - opens Help
Even with the differences, the change from Excel to Calc is for the most part, intuitive. Especially if not married to specific Excel shortcuts that are omitted from Calc (or vice versa).
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