The Bloomberg keyboard is color-coded to provide users with quick access to data and functions. 

Yellow Keys - Market Sector Keys        

Green Keys  - Action Keys        

Red Keys - Cancel & Log Off Keys

Keys to know:

Esc/Cancel - Think of it like a normal Escape key. Striking it will stop whatever you are doing.

Enter/GO - Think of it like a normal Enter key. You will use this after every command that you enter.

Print - Press Print once to print the current page or enter number of pages you wish to print & Print (ex. 5 Print)

Menu - Press Menu to navigate from any function back to a menu of related functions (and ultimately back to the main menu).

End/Back - Will take you back to the key previous screen. 

Help - Press Help key once to display help function and a description of the current function that you are using. Press help two times to email the Bloomberg  24 hour help desk. 

For more assistance with the Bloomberg Keyboard, download the Getting Started Guide or complete the Bloomberg Essentials Training. 

Find cheat sheets and help documentation for all variety of securities and functions by entering BPS <GO>

Below are examples of Bloomberg cheat sheets and help documentation for a number of popular Bloomberg functions. 

What it is

The Bloomberg Excel Add-In is a powerful tool that delivers Bloomberg data and analytics into an Excel spreadsheet on the user’s desktop. 

To use the Excel Add-In, you must be logged into the Bloomberg terminal.  

Enter DAPI <GO> for access to all API support documents, including the Desktop API Guidelines, which include important information about Bloomberg's policy on downloading and using data. If your project or use case does not comply with this policy, alternative data sources will be required. 

Working with the Excel Add-In

1. Use the Spreadsheet Builder

Spreadsheet Builder makes it easy to import Bloomberg data into a spreadsheet by automatically generating the appropriate functions through an easy step-by-step process.

You can launch the Import Data wizard by, selecting Spreadsheet Builder from the Bloomberg Menu or by clicking on the Import Data icon on Excel toolbar. 

Select the type of data you want download, then follow the steps. 

2. Use Worksheet Functions in Excel

Bloomberg’s worksheet functions provide intermediate to advanced Excel users flexibility to construct their own formulas to customize the way Bloomberg data is delivered and organized in the spreadsheet. 

In the Excel Add-in, Bloomberg functions are consolidated with flexible optional parameters:

• BDP (Bloomberg Data Point) is for current data.
• BDH (Bloomberg Data History) is for historical end of day and historical intraday data.
• BDS (Bloomberg Data Set) is for large data sets/ bulk data. 

When using any of the formulas, you must specify the security for which you want to retrieve data (Security), and you must specify the data item you want to retrieve (Field). The Security must be represented as (Ticker) (Market Sector), for example TGT Equity.

Fields are represented by mnemonics. Use the Field Search tool in Excel to search by category or keyword. 

Please Note!  All academic accounts have a download data limit. Please be judicious in downloading data to avoid hitting the limits for yourself and all other users. 

Downloading data from a Bloomberg terminal using the Excel API is subject to limitations. Once a terminal reaches its daily or monthly limit, further downloading will remain unavailable until the next month. The Excel API will return error codes when these limits are reached.

Examples of errors include: 

#NA Authorization

#NA Dly Lmt or #NA Mth Lmt

#NA Limit

#NA Unknow

To learn more about other error codes, along with possible causes and solutions, consult Bloomberg help on the terminal using this command: LPHP DAPI:0:1 1489652 <GO>

More Ways of Getting Data Out of Bloomberg 

Note: Not all data can be exported

Printing 

Choose print from the options at the top right of the screen. The 'Print Job Details' window will appear and you will need to send to a printer.  This will send a screenshot of what is displaying on the screen to a print station.  

Copy and pasting tables from Bloomberg to Excel 

• Place cursor at the corner of table in Bloomberg.
• Click and drag the data you would like to copy.  Bloomberg will copy text/data automatically without Ctrl + C.
• In Excel, press Ctrl + V to paste the data.
• Click on Data menu from the top in the Excel screen and select "Text to Columns..."
• Select "Fixed width-general."

Screenshots

To save a screen go to Export, click on Grab Screen. Not all screens can be saved.  You can also type GRAB <GO>