Another cornerstone of his philosophy is the avoidance of the mouse. Ringstrom is a vocal advocate for keyboard shortcuts, referring to them as the "pickaxe" of Excel mining. In the Hidden Treasures PDF, he dedicates significant space to shortcuts like Ctrl + [Arrow Key] (jump to the edge of a data region) and Alt + = (auto-sum). He convincingly argues that removing your hands from the keyboard to reach for the mouse breaks mental flow and introduces micro-delays that compound over a workday.
In the corporate and academic worlds, Microsoft Excel is often viewed as a necessary utility—a digital grid for basic arithmetic, lists, and simple charts. However, for those who dig beneath the surface, Excel is a labyrinth of powerful, time-saving features that remain invisible to the average user. In his influential guide, Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures (often circulated as a PDF), accounting and software expert David Ringstrom acts as a digital archaeologist, brushing away the dust of the Ribbon menu to reveal the gems that can transform a frustrated spreadsheet operator into a confident data master. Another cornerstone of his philosophy is the avoidance
One of the key treasures Ringstrom highlights is the feature. While most users know Ctrl+F for finding values, Ringstrom demonstrates how F5 > Special allows you to select every cell with comments, constants, formulas, blanks, or even cells that are directly precedent to the active cell. He argues that mastering this tool eliminates hours of manual scrolling and clicking, especially when cleaning data sets riddled with blank rows or inconsistent formulas. He convincingly argues that removing your hands from