I often work with data in scientific notation. Is there a shortcut for entering numbers using only the number section of the keyboard? (i.e. entering 1.7E+09 without using the ‘e’ character)

1880million in numbers

Yes, but you are going to have to reserve some cells for either some formulas or some VBA code, similar to building a chart.

You type 1.7 in your user input cell and when you click on cell G7 it multiplies it by E+09 and inserts the answer where you tell it to, T7, in code. It's a lot of work.

You can build a chart similar to this and format certain cells for E+04, another cell for E+05 and so on, a little easier I think but we need to know your whole idea.

Formulas, functions, VBA, VB user forms, what do you know about any of these.