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preston_gralla
Contributing Editor

Handy Excel keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Mac

how-to
Jul 05, 20216 mins
MicrosoftMicrosoft 365Microsoft Excel

Get work done more quickly by using keyboard shortcuts in the Microsoft Excel desktop app for Windows or macOS.

Microsoft > Excel [Office 365]
Credit: Microsoft

Excel’s Ribbon is great for finding everything you might ever want to do in a spreadsheet, particularly things you don’t do frequently, like managing and querying data connections or automatically grabbing geographic statistics from the internet and inserting them into cells.

But if you’re looking to do things fast, you’ll find keyboard shortcuts far more useful. Why bother to lift your hands from the keyboard if you want to open or close a file, apply formatting to cells, navigate through workbooks, undo and redo actions, calculate all worksheets in all open workbooks, and more? With keyboard shortcuts you won’t have to.

There are keyboard shortcuts to accomplish a vast array of tasks in the Excel desktop client, in both the Windows and Mac versions. (Fewer shortcuts are available for the Mac, but you can create your own custom keyboard shortcuts if you like.)

We’ve listed the shortcuts we’ve found the most useful below. Most work whether you’re using a subscription (Microsoft 365/Office 365) or non-subscription version of Excel. For even more shortcuts, see Microsoft’s Office site.

Note: On Macs, the key is the same as the Command or Cmd key.

Useful Excel keyboard shortcuts

General shortcuts
ActionWindows key combinationMac key combination
Create a new workbookCtrl-N⌘-N
Open a workbookCtrl-O⌘-O
Save a workbookCtrl-S⌘-S
Close a workbookCtrl-W⌘-W
Print a workbookCtrl-P⌘-P
Display the Find dialog boxCtrl-FControl-F
Display the Go To dialog boxF5F5
Undo the last actionCtrl-Z⌘-Z or Control-Z
Redo the last actionCtrl-Y⌘-Y or Control-Y
Insert or edit a cell commentShift-F2⌘-Shift-F2
Select all cells that contain commentsCtrl-Shift-O 
Spell-check the active worksheet or selected rangeF7F7
Worksheet navigation
ActionWindows key combinationMac key combination
Move one screen up / downPgUp / PgDnPage Up / Page Down or
Fn-up arrow / Fn-down arrow
Move one screen to the left / rightAlt-PgUp / Alt-PgDnOption-Page Up /
Option-Page Down or
Fn-Option-up arrow /
Fn-Option-down arrow
Move one worksheet tab to the left / rightCtrl-PgUp / Ctrl-PgDnControl-Page Down /
Control-Page Up or
Option-right arrow
/ Option-Left arrow
Move one cell up / downup arrow / down arrowup arrow / down arrow
Move to the next cell to the rightTabright arrow
Move to the cell to the leftShift-Tableft arrow
Move to the beginning of a rowHomeHome or Fn-left arrow
Move to the beginning of a worksheetCtrl-HomeControl-Home or
Control-Fn-Left arrow
Move to the last cell that has content in itCtrl-EndControl-End or
Control-Fn-right arrow
Move to the word to the left while in a cellCtrl-left arrow⌘-left arrow
Move to the word to the right while in a cellCtrl-right arrow⌘-right arrow
Display the Go To dialog boxCtrl-G or F5Ctrl-G or F5
Switch between the worksheet, the Ribbon,
the task pane, and Zoom controls
F6F6
If more than one worksheet is open,
switch to the next one
Ctrl-F6⌘-~
Working with data
ActionWindows key combinationMac key combination
Select a rowShift-SpacebarShift-Spacebar
Select a columnCtrl-SpacebarControl-Spacebar
Select an entire worksheetCtrl-A or
Ctrl-Shift-Spacebar
⌘-A
Extend selection by a single cellShift-arrow keyShift-arrow key
Extend selection down / up one screenShift-PgDn / Shift-PgUpShift-PgDn /
Shift-PgUp or
Shift-Fn-down arrow /
Shift-Fn-up arrow
Extend selection to the beginning of a rowShift-HomeShift-Home or
Shift-Fn-left arrow
Extend selection to the beginning of the
worksheet
Ctrl-Shift-HomeControl-Shift-Home or
Control-Shift-Fn-left arrow
Hide selected rowsCtrl-9⌘-9 or Control-9
Unhide hidden rows in a selectionCtrl-Shift-(⌘-Shift-( or Control-Shift-(
Hide selected columnsCtrl-0⌘-0 or Control-0
Unhide hidden columns in a selectionCtrl-Shift-)⌘-Shift-) or Control-Shift-)
Copy cell’s contents to the clipboardCtrl-C⌘-C or Control-C
Copy and delete cell’s contentsCtrl-X⌘-X or Control-X
Paste from the clipboard into a cellCtrl-V⌘-V or Control-V
Display the Paste Special dialog boxCtrl-Alt-V⌘-Option-V or
Control-Option-V
Finish entering data in a cell and
move to the next cell down / up
Enter / Shift-EnterEnter / Shift-Enter
Cancel your entry in a cellEscEsc
Insert the current dateCtrl-;Control-;
Insert the current timeCtrl-Shift-;⌘-;
Display the Create Table dialog boxCtrl-T or Ctrl-LControl-T
When in the formula bar, move
the cursor to the end of the text
Ctrl-End⌘-End or
⌘-Fn-right arrow
When in the formula bar, select all
text from the cursor to the end
Ctrl-Shift-End⌘-Shift-End or
⌘-Shift-Fn-right arrow
Display Quick Analysis options
for selected cells that contain data
Ctrl-Q 
Create, run, edit, or delete a macroAlt-F8Option-F8
Formatting cells and data
ActionWindows key combinationMac key combination
Display the Format Cells dialog boxCtrl-1⌘-1 or Control-1
Display the Style dialog box (Windows) /
Modify Cell Style dialog box (Mac)
Alt-‘Option-‘
Apply a border to a cell or selectionCtrl-Shift-&⌘-Option-0
Remove a border from a cell or selectionCtrl-Shift-_ (underscore)⌘-Option– (hyphen)
Apply the Currency format with
two decimal places
Ctrl-Shift-$Control-Shift-$
Apply the Number formatCtrl-Shift-~Control-Shift-~
Apply the Percentage format with
no decimal places
Ctrl-Shift-%Control-Shift-%
Apply the Date format using day,
month, and year
Ctrl-Shift-#Control-Shift-#
Apply the Time format using the
12-hour clock
Ctrl-Shift-@Control-Shift-@
Insert a hyperlinkCtrl-K⌘-K or Control-K
Working with formulas
ActionWindows key combinationMac key combination
Begin a formula==
Insert an AutoSum functionAlt-=⌘-Shift-T
Insert a functionShift-F3Shift-F3
Toggle between displaying formulas
and cell values
Ctrl-`Control-`
Copy and paste the formula
from the cell above into the
current one
Ctrl-‘Control-Shift-“
Calculate all worksheets in all
workbooks that are open
F9F9
Calculate the current worksheetShift-F9Shift-F9
Expand or collapse the formula barCtrl-Shift-UControl-Shift-U
Ribbon navigation

Excel for Mac does not have keyboard shortcuts for the Ribbon.

ActionWindows key combination
Display Ribbon shortcutsAlt
Go to the File tabAlt-F
Go to the Home tabAlt-H
Go to the Insert tabAlt-N
Go to the Page Layout tabAlt-P
Go to the Formulas tabAlt-M
Go to the Data tabAlt-A
Go to the Review tabAlt-R
Go to the View tabAlt-W
Put cursor in the Tell Me or Search boxAlt-Q
Go to the Chart Design tab when cursor is on a chartAlt-JC
Go to the Format tab when cursor is on a chartAlt-JA
Go to the Table Design tab when cursor is on a tableAlt-JT
Go to the Picture Format tab when cursor is on an imageAlt-JP
Go to the Draw tab (if available)Alt-JI
Go to the Power Pivot tab (if available)Alt-B
Source: Microsoft

Looking for more help with Excel for Windows? If you have an Office subscription, see “Excel for Office 365/Microsoft 365 cheat sheet.” If you have a non-subscription version of Office, see “Excel 2016 and 2019 cheat sheet.” We’ve also got cheat sheets for an array of other Microsoft products, including older versions of Office.

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