Excel keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut key	Action	Menu equivalent comments	Version
Ctrl+A	Select All	None	All
Ctrl+B	Bold	Format, Cells, Font, Font Style, Bold	All
Ctrl+C	Copy	Edit, Copy	All
Ctrl+D	Fill Down	Edit, Fill, Down	All
Ctrl+E	Flash Fill	Data, Flash Fill	Excel 2019+/365
Ctrl+F	Find	Edit, Find	All
Ctrl+G	Goto	Edit, Goto	All
Ctrl+H	Replace	Edit, Replace	All
Ctrl+I	Italic	Format, Cells, Font, Font Style, Italic	All
Ctrl+K	Insert Hyperlink	Insert, Hyperlink	Excel 97/2000+
Ctrl+N	New Workbook	File, New	All
Ctrl+O	Open	File, Open	All
Ctrl+P	Print	File, Print	All
Ctrl+R	Fill Right	Edit, Fill Right	All
Ctrl+S	Save	File, Save	All
Ctrl+U	Underline	Format, Cells, Font, Underline, Single	All
Ctrl+V	Paste	Edit, Paste	All
Ctrl W	Close	File, Close	Excel 97/2000+
Ctrl+X	Cut	Edit, Cut	All
Ctrl+Y	Repeat	Edit, Repeat	All
Ctrl+Z	Undo	Edit, Undo	All
F1	Help	Help, Contents and Index	All
F2	Edit	None	All
F3	Paste Name	Insert, Name, Paste	All
F4	Repeat last action	Edit, Repeat. Works while not in Edit mode.	All
F4	While typing a formula, switch between absolute/relative refs	None	All
F5	Goto	Edit, Goto	All
F6	Next Pane	None	All
F7	Spell check	Tools, Spelling	All
F8	Extend mode	None	All
F9	Recalculate all workbooks	Tools, Options, Calculation, Calc Now	All
F10	Activate Menubar	N/A	All
F11	New Chart	Insert, Chart	All
F12	Save As	File, Save As	All
Ctrl+:	Insert Current Time	None	All
Ctrl+;	Insert Current Date	None	All
Ctrl+"	Copy Value from Cell Above	Edit, Paste Special, Value	All
Ctrl+’	Copy Formula from Cell Above	Edit, Copy	All
Shift	Hold down shift for additional functions in Excel’s menu	none	Excel 97/2000+
Shift+F1	What’s This?	Help, What’s This?	All
Shift+F2	Edit cell comment	Insert, Edit Comments	All
Shift+F3	Paste function into formula	Insert, Function	All
Shift+F4	Find Next	Edit, Find, Find Next	All
Shift+F5	Find	Edit, Find, Find Next	All
Shift+F6	Previous Pane	None	All
Shift+F8	Add to selection	None	All
Shift+F9	Calculate active worksheet	Tools, Options, Calculation, Calc Sheet	All
Ctrl+Alt+F9	Calculate all worksheets in all open workbooks, regardless of whether they have changed since the last calculation.	None	Excel 97/2000+
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F9	Rechecks dependent formulas and then calculates all cells in all open workbooks, including cells not marked as needing to be calculated.	None	Excel 97/2000+
Shift+F10	Display shortcut menu	None	All
Shift+F11	New worksheet	Insert, Worksheet	All
Shift+F12	Save	File, Save	All
Ctrl+F3	Define name	Insert, Names, Define	All
Ctrl+F4	Close	File, Close	All
Ctrl+F5	XL, Restore window size	Restore	All
Ctrl+F6	Next workbook window	Window, ...	All
Shift+Ctrl+F6	Previous workbook window	Window, ...	All
Ctrl+F7	Move window	XL, Move	All
Ctrl+F8	Resize window	XL, Size	All
Ctrl+F9	Minimize workbook	XL, Minimize	All
Ctrl+F10	Maximize or restore window	XL, Maximize	All
Ctrl+F11	Inset 4.0 Macro sheet	None in Excel 97. In versions prior to 97 - Insert, Macro, 4.0 Macro	All
Ctrl+F12	File Open	File, Open	All
Alt+F1	Insert Chart	Insert, Chart...	All
Alt+F2	Save As	File, Save As	All
Alt+F4	Exit	File, Exit	All
Alt+F8	Macro dialog box	Tools, Macro, Macros in Excel 97 Tools,Macros - in earlier versions	Excel 97/2000+
Alt+F11	Visual Basic Editor	Tools, Macro, Visual Basic Editor	Excel 97/2000+
Ctrl+Shift+F3	Create name by using names of row and column labels	Insert, Name, Create	All
Ctrl+Shift+F6	Previous Window	Window, ...	All
Ctrl+Shift+F12	Print	File, Print	All
Alt+Shift+F1	New worksheet	Insert, Worksheet	All
Alt+Shift+F2	Save	File, Save	All
Alt+=	AutoSum	No direct equivalent	All
Ctrl+`	Toggle Value/Formula display	Tools, Options, View, Formulas	All
Ctrl+Shift+A	Insert argument names into formula	No direct equivalent	All
Alt+Down arrow	Display AutoComplete list	None	Excel 95
Alt+’	Format Style dialog box	Format, Style	All
Ctrl+Shift+~	General format	Format, Cells, Number, Category, General	All
Ctrl+Shift+!	Comma format	Format, Cells, Number, Category, Number	All
Ctrl+Shift+@	Time format	Format, Cells, Number, Category, Time	All
Ctrl+Shift+#	Date format	Format, Cells, Number, Category, Date	All
Ctrl+Shift+$	Currency format	Format, Cells, Number, Category, Currency	All
Ctrl+Shift+%	Percent format	Format, Cells, Number, Category, Percentage	All
Ctrl+Shift+^	Exponential format	Format, Cells, Number, Category,	All
Ctrl+Shift+&	Place outline border around selected cells	Format, Cells, Border	All
Ctrl+Shift+_	Remove outline border	Format, Cells, Border	All
Ctrl+Shift+*	Select the current region around the active cell. In a PivotTable report, select the entire PivotTable report.	Edit, Goto, Special, Current Region	All
Ctrl++	Insert	Insert, (Rows, Columns, or Cells) Depends on selection	All
Ctrl+-	Delete	Delete, (Rows, Columns, or Cells) Depends on selection	All
Ctrl+1	Format cells dialog box	Format, Cells	All
Ctrl+2	Bold	Format, Cells, Font, Font Style, Bold	All
Ctrl+3	Italic	Format, Cells, Font, Font Style, Italic	All
Ctrl+4	Underline	Format, Cells, Font, Font Style, Underline	All
Ctrl+5	Strikethrough	Format, Cells, Font, Effects, Strikethrough	All
Ctrl+6	Show/Hide objects	Tools, Options, View, Objects, Show All/Hide	All
Ctrl+7	Show/Hide Standard toolbar	View, Toolbars, Stardard	All
Ctrl+8	Toggle Outline symbols	None	All
Ctrl+9	Hide rows	Format, Row, Hide	All
Ctrl+0	Hide columns	Format, Column, Hide	All
Ctrl+Shift+(	Unhide rows	Format, Row, Unhide	All
Ctrl+Shift+)	Unhide columns	Format, Column, Unhide	All
Alt or F10	Activate the menu	None	All
Ctrl+Tab	In toolbar: next toolbar In a workbook: activate next workbook	None	Excel 97/2000+
Shift+Ctrl+Tab	In toolbar: previous toolbar In a workbook: activate previous workbook	None	Excel 97/2000+
Tab	Next tool	None	Excel 97/2000+
Shift+Tab	Previous tool	None	Excel 97/2000+
Enter	Do the command	None	Excel 97/2000+
Alt+Enter	Start a new line in the same cell.	None	Excel 97/2000+
Ctrl+Enter	Fill the selected cell range with the current entry.	None	Excel 97/2000+
Shift+Ctrl+F	Font Drop Down List	Format, Cells, Font	All
Shift+Ctrl+F+F	Font tab of Format Cell Dialog box	Format, Cells, Font	Before 97/2000
Shift+Ctrl+P	Point size Drop Down List	Format, Cells, Font	All
Ctrl+Spacebar	Select the entire column	None	Excel 97/2000+
Shift+Spacebar	Select the entire row	None	Excel 97/2000+
CTRL+Backspace	Jump back to the active cell and bring it into view
CTRL+/	Select the array containing the active cell.
CTRL+SHIFT+O	Select all cells that contain comments.
CTRL+\	In a selected row, select the cells that don’t match the formula or static value in the active cell.
CTRL+SHIFT+|	In a selected column, select the cells that don’t match the formula or static value in the active cell.
CTRL+[	Select all cells directly referenced by formulas in the selection.
CTRL+SHIFT+{	Select all cells directly or indirectly referenced by formulas in the selection.
CTRL+]	Select cells that contain formulas that directly reference the active cell.
CTRL+SHIFT+}	Select cells that contain formulas that directly or indirectly reference the active cell.
ALT+;	Select the visible cells in the current selection.
SHIFT+BACKSPACE	With multiple cells selected, select only the active cell.
CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR	Selects the entire worksheet. If the worksheet contains data, CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR selects the current region. CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR a second time selects the entire worksheet. When an object is selected, CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR selects all objects on a worksheet
Ctrl+Alt+L	Reapply the filter and sort on the current range so that changes you've made are included	Data, Reapply	Excel 2007+
Ctrl+Alt+V	Displays the Paste Special dialog box. Available only after you have cut or copied an object, text, or cell contents on a worksheet or in another program.	Home, Paste, Paste Special...	Excel 2007+

A special thanks goes out to Shane Devenshire who provided most of the shortcuts in this list!

References:

• Microsoft Office: Excel shortcut and function keys

Shortcuts for the Visual Basic Editor

Shortcut key	Action	Menu equivalent comments
F1	Help	Help
F2	View Object Browser	View, Object Browser
F3	Find Next
F4	Properies Window	View, Properties Window
F5	Run Sub/Form or Run Macro	Run, Run Macro
F6	Switch Split Windows
F7	View Code Window	View, Code
F8	Step Into	Debug, Step Into
F9	Toggle Breakpoint	Debug, Toggle Breakpoint
F10	Activate Menu Bar
Shift+F2	View definition	View, Definition
Shift+F3	Find Previous
Shift+F7	View Object	View, Object
Shift+F8	Step Over	Debug, Step Over
Shift+F9	Quick Watch	Debug, Quick Watch
Shift+F10	Show Right Click Menu
Ctrl+F2	Focus To Object Box
Ctrl+F4	Close Window
Ctrl+F8	Run To Cursor	Debug, Run To Cursor
Ctrl+F10	Activate Menu Bar
Alt+F4	Close VBE	File, Close and Return to Microsoft Excel
Alt+F6	Switch Between Last 2 Windows
Alt+F11	Return To Application
Ctrl+Shift+F2	Go to last position	View, Last Position
Ctrl+Shift+F8	Step Out	Debug, Step Out
Ctrl+Shift+F9	Clear All Breakpoints	Debug, Clear All Breakpoints
Insert	Toggle Insert Mode
Delete	Delete	Edit, Clear
Home	Move to beginning of line
End	Move to end of line
Page Up	Page Up
Page Down	Page Down
Left Arrow	Left
Right Arrow	Right
Up Arrow	Up
Down Arrow	Down
Tab	Indent	Edit, Indent
Enter	New Line
BackSpace	Delete Prev Char
Shift+Insert	Paste	Edit, Paste
Shift+Home	Select To Start Of Line
Shift+End	Select To End Of Line
Shift+Page Up	Select To Top Of Module
Shift+Page Down	Select To End Of Module
Shift+Left Arrow	Extend Selection Left 1 Char
Shift+Right Arrow	Extend Selection Right 1 Char
Shift+Up Arrow	Extend Selection Up
Shift+Down Arrow	Extend Selection Down
Shift+Tab	Outdent	Edit, Outdent
Alt+Spacebar	System Menu
Alt+Tab	Cycle Applications
Alt+BackSpace	Undo
Ctrl+A	Select All	Edit, Select All
Ctrl+C	Copy	Edit, Copy
Ctrl+E	Export Module	File, Export File
Ctrl+F	Find	Edit, Find...
Ctrl+G	Immediate Window	View, Immediate Window
Ctrl+H	Replace	Edit, Replace...
Ctrl+I	Turn On Quick Info	Edit, Quikc Info
Ctrl+J	List Properties/Methods	Edit, List Properties/Methods
Ctrl+L	Show Call Stack
Ctrl+M	Import File	File, Import File
Ctrl+N	New Line
Ctrl+P	Print	File, Print
Ctrl+R	Project Explorer	View, Project Explorer
Ctrl+S	Save	File, Save
Ctrl+T	Show Available Components	Insert, Components...
Ctrl+V	Paste	Edit, Paste
Ctrl+X	Cut	Edit, Cut
Ctrl+Y	Cut Entire Line
Ctrl+Z	Undo	Edit, Undo
Ctrl+Insert	Copy	Edit, Copy
Ctrl+Delete	Delete To End Of Word
Ctrl+Home	Top Of Module
Ctrl+End	End Of Module
Ctrl+Page Up	Top Of Current Procedure
Ctrl+Page Down	End Of Current Procedure
Ctrl+Left Arrow	Move one word to left
Ctrl+Right Arrow	Move one word to right
Ctrl+Up Arrow	Previous Procedure
Ctrl+Down Arrow	Next Procedure
Ctrl+Spacebar	Complete Word	Edit, Complete Word
Ctrl+Tab	Cycle Windows
Ctrl+BackSpace	Delete To Start Of Word
Ctrl+Break/Pause	Break	Run, Break
Ctrl+Shift+I	Parameter Info	Edit, Parameter Info
Ctrl+Shift+J	List Constants	Edit, List Constants

Excel Shortcuts That You Should Know in 2023

Table of Contents

What is Microsoft Excel? 

Need for Excel Shortcuts

Workbook Shortcut Keys

Cell Formatting Shortcut Keys

Row and Column Formatting Shortcut Keys

View More

Microsoft Excel is extensively used across the globe to store and analyze data. Despite various new data analytics tools in the market, Excel remains the go-to product for working with data. It has numerous in-built features, which makes it easier for you to organize your data. 

The shortcut keys in Excel help you work on your data in a jiffy. In this article, we’ll be discussing the various Excel shortcuts. These keyboard shortcuts are used to perform tasks faster and effectively.

What is Microsoft Excel? 

Although many of you are already aware of Excel, let’s have a small introduction anyways. Microsoft Excel is an application developed by Microsoft that is used to record, analyze, and visualize data. Excel, a spreadsheet application, was developed by Microsoft in 1985.

Fig: Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet

Data in Excel is in the form of rows and columns. Excel is commonly used to record and analyze data, perform mathematical operations, and visualize structured data in charts and graphs. Finally, another important application of Excel is that it helps in automating tasks through excel macros. 

To perform the tasks mentioned above quickly, Excel has a set of shortcuts. Various operations can be achieved with a few simple keyboard strokes. Let’s dive deep into the Excel shortcuts that can help us work better on an Excel spreadsheet.

Need for Excel Shortcuts

Excel supports a plethora of keyboard shortcuts that help you work efficiently and increase productivity. Instead of accessing the toolbar with a mouse, two or three keystrokes are used to perform significant functions. Isn’t that easier and time-saving? Using Excel shortcuts drastically increases the speed, and thus reduces work-time. 

Now the question is, if you have to memorize these shortcuts, the answer is no. However, it would be an advantage if you can remember a few of them. With regular practice, you will be able to remember most of the common Excel shortcuts.

Let’s now look at the Excel shortcuts cheat sheet, which you should know when working on Microsoft Excel. In this article, we have categorized 50 Excel shortcuts based on their operations. First, we will look at the workbook shortcut keys.

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Workbook Shortcut Keys

In this section, we will understand the basics of operating a workbook. We will learn how to create a new workbook, open an existing workbook, and save a spreadsheet so that you don’t lose any data or calculations that you have done. We will then go through how you can toggle between several different sheets in a workbook. 

Description	Excel Shortcuts
1. To create a new workbook	Ctrl + N
2. To open an existing workbook	Ctrl + O
3. To save a workbook/spreadsheet	Ctrl + S
4. To close the current workbook	Ctrl + W
5. To close Excel	Ctrl + F4
6. To move to the next sheet	Ctrl + PageDown
7. To move to the previous sheet	Ctrl + PageUp
8. To go to the Data tab	Alt + A
9. To go to the View tab	Alt + W
10. To go the Formula tab	Alt + M

Those were the Excel shortcuts that can help you navigate through your spreadsheet. Once the workbook creation is done, the next key step is cell formatting.

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Cell Formatting Shortcut Keys

A cell in Excel holds all the data that you are working on. Several different shortcuts can be applied to a cell, such as editing a cell, aligning cell contents, adding a border to a cell, adding an outline to all the selected cells, and many more. Here is a sneak peek into these Excel shortcuts.

Description	Excel Shortcuts
11. To edit a cell	F2
12. To copy and paste cells	Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V
13. To italicize and make the font bold	Ctrl + I, Ctrl + B
14. To center align cell contents	Alt + H + A + C
15. To fill color	Alt + H + H
16. To add a border	Alt + H + B
17. To remove outline border	Ctrl + Shift + _
18. To add an outline to the select cells	Ctrl + Shift + &
19. To move to the next cell	Tab
20. To move to the previous cell	Shift + Tab
21. To select all the cells on the right	Ctrl + Shift + Right arrow
22. To select all the cells on the left	Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow
23. To select the column from the selected cell to the end of the table	Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow
24. To select all the cells above the selected cell	Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow
25. To select all the cells below the selected cell	Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow

In addition to the above-mentioned cell formatting shortcuts, let’s look at a few more additional and advanced cell formatting Excel shortcuts, that might come handy. 

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We will learn how to add a comment to a cell. Comments are helpful when giving extra information about cell content. We will also learn how to find value and replace it with another value in the spreadsheet. After this, we will look into how to insert the current time, current date, activate a filter, and add a hyperlink to a cell. Finally, we will see how to apply a format to the data in a cell.

Description	Excel Shortcuts
26. To add a comment to a cell	Shift + F2
27. To delete a cell comment	Shift + F10 + D
28. To display find and replace	Ctrl + H
29. To activate the filter	Ctrl + Shift + L Alt + Down Arrow
30. To insert the current date	Ctrl + ;
31. To insert current time	Ctrl + Shift + :
32. To insert a hyperlink	Ctrl + k
33. To apply the currency format	Ctrl + Shift + $
34. To apply the percent format	Ctrl + Shift + %
35. To go to the “Tell me what you want to do” box	Alt + Q

After working with cell formatting Excel shortcuts, the next step is to understand how to work with an entire row/column in Excel. 

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Row and Column Formatting Shortcut Keys

In this section, we’ll look at some critical row and column formatting shortcuts.

We will understand how to delete rows and columns, hide and unhide the selected rows and columns, and group and ungroup rows and columns.

Description	Excel Shortcuts
36. To select the entire row	Shift + Space
37. To select the entire column	Ctrl + Space
38. To delete a column	Alt+H+D+C
39. To delete a row	Shift + Space, Ctrl + -
40. To hide selected row	Ctrl + 9
41. To unhide selected row	Ctrl + Shift + 9
42. To hide a selected column	Ctrl + 0
43. To unhide a selected column	Ctrl + Shift + 0
44. To group rows or columns	Alt + Shift + Right arrow
45. To ungroup rows or columns	Alt + Shift + Left arrow

Now that we have looked at the different shortcut keys for formatting cells, rows, and columns, it is time to jump into understanding an advanced topic in Excel, i.e. dealing with pivot tables. Let’s look at the different shortcuts to summarize your data using a pivot table.

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Pivot Table Shortcut Keys

First, let’s create a pivot table using a sales dataset.

In the image below you can see that we have a pivot table to summarize the total sales for each subcategory of the product under each category.

Fig: Pivot table using sales data

46. To group pivot table items

Alt + Shift + Right arrow

The image below depicts that we have grouped the sales of bookcases and chairs subcategories into Group 1.

47. To ungroup pivot table items	Alt + Shift + Left arrow
48. To hide pivot table items	Ctrl + -

You can see below we have hidden the Chairs, Art, and Label subcategories.

49. To create a pivot chart on the same sheet	Alt + F1
50. To create a pivot chart on a new worksheet	F11

Fig: Pivot chart on the same sheet

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Have a look at the video below that explains worksheet related shortcuts, row and column shortcuts, and pivot table shortcut keys.

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Conclusion

Excel shortcut keys will indeed help you build your reports and analysis faster and better. After reading this article, you would have understood the different types of Excel shortcuts related to the workbook, cell formatting, row and column formatting, and pivot tables.