Excel keyboard shortcuts, one page per family
Six pages of keys: moving around, selecting, formatting, writing formulas, cleaning data and arranging windows. Each page gives the Windows and macOS chord for every action, and ends on an exercise that asks for the keys.
Moving around the workbook
Arrow keys, Ctrl and the End key move the active cell anywhere in the used range. Five combinations cover almost every trip you make across a sheet.
- Move the active cell one cell in any direction
- Jump to the edge of the block of data
- Go to the last cell that holds data
- Return to the top left corner
- Move one screen down
- Move one screen right
- Move one screen left
- Jump to the next worksheet
- Jump to the previous worksheet
- Go to a cell you name
- Move to column A of the current row
- Move to the last cell of the current row
Selecting cells and ranges
Selecting is the half of the keyboard people skip. Bolding the wrong range is almost always a selection mistake, not a formatting one.
- Select the whole column
- Select the whole row
- Select everything on the sheet
- Extend the selection by one cell
- Extend the selection to the edge of the block
- Extend the selection to the last used cell
- Add a second range to what is already selected
- Select only the rows a filter left visible
- Extend the selection down one screen
- Move the active cell inside the selection
- Turn extend-selection mode on
- Shrink the selection back to the active cell
Formatting what you selected
Numbers are formatting, not values. The six Ctrl + Shift keys set the format of a range in one press, which is faster than any dialog.
- Make the text bold
- Make the text italic
- Underline the text
- Strike through the text
- Open the Format Cells dialog
- Apply a two-decimal number format
- Apply a time format
- Apply a date format
- Apply a currency format
- Apply a percentage format
- Apply a scientific format
- Go back to the General format
- Fill the cell below from the cell above
- Fill the cell to the right from the cell on the left
Writing and checking formulas
Three keys do most of the work here: F4 locks a reference, F2 opens the cell for editing, and Ctrl + Enter keeps the cursor where it is.
- Start a formula in the cell
- Insert a function from a dialog
- Total the column above the cell
- Toggle a reference between relative and absolute
- Show every formula instead of its result
- Accept the entry and stay in the cell
- Cancel the entry you are typing
- Start a new line inside the cell
- Insert the argument names of the function
- See what part of the formula evaluates to
- Expand or collapse the formula bar
- Edit the active cell instead of typing over it
- Copy the value from the cell above
Sorting, filtering and cleaning data
The keys that turn a range into a table, a filter, and a set of values you can paste somewhere else. Most of them are Alt sequences.
- Turn filters on or off for the range
- Open the filter menu on a column
- Open the Sort dialog
- Find text in the sheet
- Replace text in the sheet
- Turn the range into a table
- Split one column into several
- Remove duplicate rows
- Open the data validation dialog
- Group the selected rows
- Paste values instead of formulas
- Fill the column from the pattern you typed
- Refresh every data connection
Windows, panes and sheets
The keys that change what you are looking at rather than what the sheet holds: frozen panes, split windows, the ribbon, and the tabs.
- Hide or show the ribbon
- Freeze the rows above the active cell
- Split the window at the active cell
- Open the zoom dialog
- Switch to the next open workbook
- Cycle back through the open workbooks
- Open a second window on the same workbook
- Move to the next pane of a split window
- Close the workbook window
- Rename the current worksheet
- Hide the current worksheet
Practise the keys
Reading a table of keys does not build the habit. Each family ends on an exercise that asks for its keys, and that exercise grades the presses the way the formula ones grade what you type.
Common questions
What if my Excel has no default for a shortcut?
The row says so and names the menu the command lives on. A guessed chord is worse than a menu path, because you would believe it.
Do these work in Google Sheets?
Some do. A family shows a Google Sheets tab only when it has keys that work there, and the rows that differ say so in the note.
How current is the table?
Each page ends with the versions and the date its keys were checked. Shortcuts drift between releases, so check that line before you trust a row.