Cellwise Start free

Excel shortcuts

Excel Alt-key shortcuts and ribbon KeyTips (Windows)

Press Alt and every ribbon tab shows a letter. Press the letter and every button on that tab shows one too. That turns any command into a short sequence, even ones with no shortcut. These are Windows only: Excel for Mac has no KeyTips, and Excel for the web starts them with Alt+Windows key. Excel also still accepts most old Excel 2003 menu sequences if you know them in full.

Checked against Microsoft's official lists on . Where Microsoft lists a key for one platform only, the other column says so instead of guessing.

Learn these first

ShortcutWindowsMac
Show the KeyTips (letters on every tab and button)Press and release, then type the letters that appear. Excel for the web on a Mac: Microsoft says to press Control+Option to start.Alt or F10Web AltWindows key—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Go to the Home tabAltHWeb AltWindows key, H—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Jump to the Search (Tell Me) boxAltQWeb AltWindows key, Q or AltQ—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Choose a fill colorAltH, H—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list

Using the ribbon

ShortcutWindowsMac
Show the KeyTips (letters on every tab and button)Press and release, then type the letters that appear. Excel for the web on a Mac: Microsoft says to press Control+Option to start.Alt or F10Web AltWindows key—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Jump to the Search (Tell Me) boxAltQWeb AltWindows key, Q or AltQ—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Move the focus between ribbon commandsTab or ShiftTabWeb Enter, Tab—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Move up, down, left or right on the ribbonan arrow key—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Show the tooltip of the ribbon item in focusCtrlShiftF10—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Press the selected buttonSpace or Enter—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Open the list of the selected commandDown arrow—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Open the menu of the selected buttonAltDown arrow—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Move to the submenu of an open menuLeft arrow—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Move from one group of controls to the nextCtrlLeft arrow or CtrlRight arrow—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list

Go to a tab

ShortcutWindowsMac
Open the File menuAltFWeb AltWindows key, F—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Go to the Home tabAltHWeb AltWindows key, H—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Go to the Insert tabAltNWeb AltWindows key, N—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Go to the Page Layout tabAltP—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Go to the Formulas tabAltM—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Go to the Data tabAltAWeb AltWindows key, A—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Go to the Review tabAltRWeb AltWindows key, R—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Go to the View tabAltWWeb AltWindows key, W—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list

Home tab

ShortcutWindowsMac
Choose a fill colorAltH, H—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Open the Borders menuAltH, B—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Open the Number Format listAltH, N—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Format as Table, choosing a style How to: Create table shortcut in Excel AltH, T—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Delete the columnAltH, D, C—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list

Tables

ShortcutWindowsMac
In a table, insert a row aboveAltH, I, A—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
In a table, insert a column to the leftAltH, I, L—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
In a table, delete the row or rowsAltH, D, L—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
In a table, delete the column or columnsAltH, D, M—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Open the Table Design tabAltJ, T—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Turn the table header row on or offAltJ, T, O—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list

View tab

ShortcutWindowsMac
Switch to Page Layout viewAlt, W, P—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Switch to Normal viewAlt, W, L—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list
Switch to Page Break PreviewAlt, W, I—No Mac shortcut in Microsoft's list

Why a shortcut sometimes does nothing

KeyTips change with the language

Alt sequences such as AltH, O, I are ribbon KeyTips: press Alt and the letters appear on screen. They come from the English ribbon. In another language, or when an add-in adds a tab, the letters can differ, so read them off the screen rather than memorizing them.

Excel for the web: the browser takes some keys

In a browser, a few keys belong to the browser first: F1 opens the browser's help, CtrlO opens a file, CtrlW closes the tab, and F6 moves around the browser. Excel for the web uses CtrlF6 instead of F6, CtrlAltPage Down for the next sheet in Chrome, and AltWindows key with a letter for ribbon tabs. To get desktop behavior back, go to Help > Keyboard Shortcuts and select Override browser shortcuts. If the file opened in Viewing mode, editing shortcuts do nothing until you switch to Editing.

Related guides

In the glossary: Ribbon