The Alt+C brings up the Contents tab if not visible. As will
Hide/Show button at the left of the Help toolbar. If that does not
work and you see a two headed arrow when you try to enter something
then go to your Running Tasks (Ctrl+Alt+Del, Task manager)
and take down msohelp
You can probably get there faster by typing in keyboard
on the Index tab. If you then switch to the contents tab it will
normally show the item you have in the index and you can see it
in context with similar material in the equivalent of a book chapter.
I have a page on Shortcuts that you may find works a bit
faster with a simple FIND (Ctrl+F) in your browser.
Shortcut Keys in Excel 2000 (Excel Vers. 9)
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/shortx2k.htm
You might also take a look at Chip Pearson's page on shortcuts
VBA Editor Shortcut Keys
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/vbashortcutkeys.htm