Excel Shortcuts

Excel Shortcuts

Using shortcuts in Excel can help you get stuff done much faster. Below I've put together a list of shortcuts I use very often at work. These have helped me become much more efficient in Excel. I suggest trying to learn one or two each day until you've mastered them. Then learn additional shortcuts that will allow you to be a better Excel user.

Excel Shortcut Key Description
Navigation
Ctrl + F6 Switches between workbooks. This is very useful when you have multiple workbooks open.
Ctrl + Page Up Select the previous sheet in the workbook.
Ctrl + Page Down Select the next sheet in the workbook.
Ctrl + [arrow key] Goes to either the next cell in the row or column with data, or the cell before the next blank cell, whichever comes first. Using this can increase your speed tremendously.
Ctrl + Home Goes to first cell in data region.
Ctrl + End Goes to last cell in data region.
Shift + Space Bar Highlights current row.
Ctrl + Space Bar Highlights current column.
Shift + [arrow key] Highlights range.
Shift + Page Up/Down Highlights range one page at a time.
Shift + Ctrl + [arrow key] Highlights continuous column -- very useful in large data sets.
Shift + Ctrl + Home Highlights everything up and left from the current active cell in the data region.
Shift + Ctrl + End Highlights everything down and right from the current active cell in the data region.
Ctrl + F11 Go to Visual Basic Editor.
Ctrl + A Select the whole sheet.
Formatting/Editing (I have included Alt combinations. Note that when using Alt combinations to access the menu, you don't need to hold down Alt or the succeeding keys.)
Alt > i > r Inserts a row.
Alt > i > c Inserts a column.
Ctrl + 1 Format cells.
Ctrl + Shift + p Select point size.
Ctrl + Shift + f Select font.
F2 Edit the current cell. Use this instead of double-clicking in the cell or clicking in the edit bar. It's also useful when you are entering a formula and want to press the left arrow without selecting a cell.
Alt + = Inserts Sum() function (equivalent to clicking on the summation symbol).
Alt > e > d Delete cells. Use right after Shift + Space Bar to delete row(s) or right after Ctrl + Space Bar to delete column(s) (this is very useful rather than having to use your mouse to delete rows and columns).
Alt > d > s Sort.
Alt > d > g > g Group.
Alt > o > c > w Set column width
Alt > o > c > a Autofit column. Doing this right after Ctrl + Space Bar will set the column width to the maximum cell width.
Alt > i > m Insert comment.
Ctrl + Shift + 7 Apply outside borders.
Ctrl + Shift + Underline Remove all borders.
Alt + Enter Use when editing a cell to force a new line within the cell.
Copying/Pasting
Ctrl + C Copy.
Ctrl + X Cut. Be careful when using cut in Excel! Formulas pointed to the cell you cut will point to wherever you paste.
Ctrl + V Paste.
[right click key] > s > v Paste Special values. (I'm referring to the right click key next to the right Ctrl key.)
General
Ctrl + S Save
F12 Save As.
Alt > f > a Save As. (For those of us that can't remember F12.)
Ctrl + N New workbook.
Visual Basic
Alt + F11 Opens or goes to the VBA Editor.
Alt > t > m > r Record macro.
Alt + F8 Goto Macros.

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