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This extra practice section is optional and may be skipped or you may return to it later. However, if you would like more practice, this gives other examples of real-world shortcut keys that may help people become more productive at work or school.
Having shortcut keys for the apps you often use, such as those for Word, Outlook, or Excel can improve your efficiency. This lesson teaches you how to find Office apps, create a shortcut to the app on the desktop, and then apply the skills learned previously in this lesson to create a shortcut key for those apps.
- Open Windows Explorer by pressing WINDOWS Key+E, and then navigate to the following folder:
- C:\Program Files (x86)
- \Microsoft Office
- \root
- \Office16 (Note, the version or location of these files will change with time.)
- Type E X E to look for EXCEL.EXE. This is the executable that launches Microsoft Excel.
- Press SHIFT+F10 to open a context menu.
- Press N to open the Send To submenu, and then press ENTER on "Desktop (create shortcut)."
- Press WINDOWS Key+D to minimize all apps and move focus to the desktop.
- Find the shortcut that was just created for Excel on your desktop and perform two actions:
- Rename the shortcut so it reads better. Press F2 on the shortcut to go into edit mode to rename it, and then ENTER to close the edit box when finished.
- Follow the instructions in the first part of this exercise for creating a shortcut key to launch Excel. In this case, consider using the letter E as the shortcut key, to which Windows will automatically add the CTRL and the ALT for you during the exercise.
In the folder for Office 16 you just opened are executable files for other Office apps, such as Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, etc. Take some time to create more shortcuts as needed for practice.