Excel keyboard shortcuts for beginners

Learn them in this order

There are hundreds of Excel shortcuts. You need about thirty. The ones below are grouped by job, starting with the ones that save the most time on a real sheet like the sales log here. Learn one group a week and use it until you stop reaching for the mouse.

Keys are for Excel for Windows. On a Mac, Cmd replaces Ctrl for copy, paste, undo, save, bold, select all and moving with arrows; a few others differ and are noted.

Move around and select data

These matter most on long lists. Ctrl+Arrow jumps to the last filled cell before a gap, so a blank row stops it, which also tells you the data has a hole in it.

1. Ctrl+Arrow key: jump to the edge of the data in that direction (Mac: Cmd+Arrow).
2. Ctrl+Shift+Arrow key: select from the current cell to the edge of the data.
3. Ctrl+Home: go to A1. Ctrl+End: go to the last used cell on the sheet.
4. Ctrl+A: select the current block of data; press it again to select the whole sheet.
5. Shift+Space: select the whole row. Ctrl+Space: select the whole column.
6. Ctrl+Page Down / Ctrl+Page Up: move to the next or previous worksheet.

Type and edit faster

Enter moves down and Tab moves right, so you can type a row of data without touching the mouse. F2 opens the cell for editing with the cursor at the end, instead of replacing what is there.

1. Tab: confirm and move right. Shift+Tab: move left. Enter: move down. Shift+Enter: move up.
2. F2: edit the active cell (Mac: Ctrl+U). Esc: cancel the edit and keep the old value.
3. Ctrl+Enter: put the same entry in every selected cell at once.
4. Ctrl+D: fill down from the cell above. Ctrl+R: fill right from the cell to the left.
5. Ctrl+; (semicolon): type today's date. Ctrl+Shift+; : type the current time.
6. Alt+Enter: start a new line inside the same cell.
7. Ctrl+Z: undo. Ctrl+Y: redo or repeat the last action.

Formulas

Alt+= writes a SUM for the numbers above (or to the left of) the selected cell. Check the dashed border before you press Enter, because it stops at the first blank cell. F4 is the shortcut for absolute references: with the cursor on a reference in a formula, each press cycles A1, $A$1, A$1 and $A1.

1. Alt+=: AutoSum (Mac: Cmd+Shift+T).
2. F4 while editing a formula: add or cycle the $ signs on the reference under the cursor (Mac: Cmd+T).
3. Ctrl+` (the backtick key, left of 1): show formulas instead of results; press again to switch back.
4. Ctrl+Shift+Enter: confirm an array formula in Excel 2019 and earlier. Excel 365 does not need it.

Format and organize

Ctrl+1 opens Format Cells, which holds every number, date, alignment and border option in one place. Ctrl+T turns your range into a table: banded rows, filter buttons, and formulas that fill down automatically when you add a row.

1. Ctrl+1: open Format Cells (Mac: Cmd+1).
2. Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+U: bold, italic, underline.
3. Ctrl+Shift+$: currency format. Ctrl+Shift+%: percent format. Ctrl+Shift+!: number with two decimals and a thousands separator.
4. Ctrl+T: create a table from the current data.
5. Ctrl+Shift+L: turn filter buttons on or off.
6. Ctrl+E: Flash Fill the column based on the examples you typed.

Copy, paste and find

Paste Special is where you paste values only, which is how you freeze formula results before sending a file. The ribbon also has keys of its own: press Alt and letters appear on every tab and button, so you can reach any command from the keyboard.

1. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V: copy, cut, paste.
2. Ctrl+Alt+V: open Paste Special; press V then Enter to paste values only.
3. Ctrl+F: find. Ctrl+H: find and replace.
4. Ctrl+S: save. F12: Save As.
5. Alt: show the ribbon KeyTips, then press the letters shown (for example Alt, H for the Home tab).