Microsoft Excel - all keyboard shortcuts for faster use. Even if you're familiar with Microsoft Excel, you might be surprised at the number and variety of keyboard shortcuts you can use to speed up your work and generally make things more convenient.
While our shortcut list here is quite long, it's by no means a complete list of every key combination available in Excel. We have tried to keep it to the more generally useful shortcuts. And you'll be happy to know that almost all of these shortcuts have been around for a long time, so they should be useful no matter what version of Excel you're using.
Microsoft Excel: all keyboard shortcuts
General program shortcuts
First, let's take a look at some general keyboard shortcuts for manipulating workbooks, getting help, and some other interface-related actions.
- Ctrl + N : create a new workbook
- Ctrl+O: opens an existing workbook
- Ctrl+S: save a workbook
- F12: open the Save As dialog box
- Ctrl + W: closes a workbook
- CTRL+F4: Close Excel
- F4: repeat the last command or action. For example, if the last thing you typed in a cell is "hello" or if you change the font color, click on another cell and pressing F4 repeat that action in the new cell.
- Shift + F11: insert a new worksheet
- Ctrl+Z: cancel an action
- Ctrl+Y: restore an action
- CTRL+F2: switch to Print Preview
- F1: opens the Help pane
- Alt + Q: go to the box "Tell me what you want to do"
- F7: check your spelling
- F9: calculate all worksheets in all open workbooks
- Shift + F9: calculate active worksheets
- Alt o F10: turn key tips on or off
- CTRL+F1: shows or hides the tape
- Ctrl + Shift + U: expands or collapses the formula bar
- CTRL+F9: minimize the workbook window
- F11 : create a bar chart based on selected data (on a separate sheet)
- Alt+F1: create an embedded bar chart based on selected data (same sheet)
- ctrl+f: search in a spreadsheet or use Find and Replace
- Alt + F: open the File tab menu
- Alt + H: go to the Home tab
- Alt + N: opens the Insert tab
- Alt + P: go to the Page Layout tab
- Alt + M: go to the Formulas tab
- Alt + A: go to the Data tab
- Alt + R: go to the Review tab
- Alt + W: go to the View tab
- Alt + X: go to the Add-ons tab
- Alt + Y: go to the Help tab
- Ctrl + Tab: allows you to switch between open workbooks
- Shift + F3: insert a function
- Alt+F8: create, run, modify or delete a macro
- Alt+F11: open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications editor
Move around in a worksheet or cell
You can use keyboard shortcuts to easily navigate within the worksheet, within a cell, or the entire workbook.
- Left / right arrow: move a cell left or right
- Ctrl + Left / Right Arrow: moves the furthest cell left or right in the row
- Up / down arrow: move a cell up or down
- Ctrl + Up / Down Arrow: allows you to move to the top or bottom cell of the column
- Form: go to the next cell
- Shift + Tab: go to the previous cell
- Ctrl + Fine: go to the used cell further down on the right
- F5: go to any cell by pressing F5 and typing the cell coordinate or cell name.
- Home: go to the leftmost cell in the current row (or go to the beginning of the cell if you are editing a cell)
- Ctrl + Home: move to the beginning of a worksheet
- Page up / down: moves a screen up or down in a worksheet
- Alt + Up / Down Page: moves a screen left or right in a worksheet
- Ctrl + Page Up / Down: allows you to go to the previous or next worksheet
Cell selection
You may have noticed from the previous section that you use the arrow keys to move between cells and the Ctrl key to change that movement. Using the Shift key to change the arrow keys you can extend the selected cells. There are also some other combos to speed up the selection.
- Shift + Left / Right Arrow: extends the cell selection to the left or right
- Shift + Space: select the entire row
- Ctrl + Space: select the entire column
- Ctrl + Shift + Space: select the entire worksheet
Editing cells
Excel also provides some keyboard shortcuts for editing cells.
- F2: edit a cell
- Shift + F2: add or edit a cell comment
- Ctrl+X: allows you to cut the contents of a cell, the selected data or the selected range of cells
- Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert: copies the contents of a cell, the selected data or the selected range of cells
- Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert: pastes the contents of a cell, the selected data, or the selected range of cells
- Ctrl+Alt+V: opens the Paste Special dialog box
- Remove: removes the contents of a cell, the selected data, or the selected range of cells
- Alt + Enter: insert a hard return inside a cell (when editing a cell)
- F3: paste a cell name (if the cells are named in the worksheet)
- Alt + H + D + C: Delete column
- Esc: cancels an entry in a cell or formula bar
- Sending: completes an entry in a cell or formula bar
Format the cells
Ready to format some cells? These keyboard shortcuts make it easier!
- Ctrl + B: adds or removes in bold the contents of a cell, the selected data or the selected range of cells
- Ctrl+I: adds or removes italics to the content of a cell, the selected data, or the selected range of cells
- Ctrl + U: adds or removes underlining to the contents of a cell, the selected data, or the selected range of cells
- Alt + H + H: select a fill color
- Alt + H + B: add a border
- Ctrl + Shift + &: apply the outline border
- Ctrl + Shift + _ (Underline): remove the outline border
- CTRL+9: hide selected lines
- CTRL+0: hides the selected columns
- CTRL+1: opens the Format Cells dialog box
- CTRL+5: apply or remove strikethrough
- Ctrl + Shift + $: apply the currency format
- Ctrl + Shift +%: apply the percentage format
