The Best Excel Keyboard Shortcuts 2026 February: reviewed

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Microsoft Excel is used a lot all over the world to store and look at data. Even though there are many new tools for data analysis on the market, Excel is still the most popular tool for working with data. It comes with a lot of built-in features that make it easy to organize your data.

Excel’s shortcut keys make it easy to work quickly with your data. In this article, we’ll talk about the different keyboard shortcuts for Excel. With these keyboard shortcuts, you can do things faster and better. We’ve put together the best Excel shortcuts you need to know to help you work a little faster or maybe more efficiently.

Benefits of Using Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

Using the best Excel keyboard shortcuts can help you be more productive and efficient when working with numbers in many ways. Here are a few of the main pros:

• Speed and efficiency: Using keyboard shortcuts to do a job is much faster than using a mouse to move through menus. When working with big data sets or complicated formulas, this speed is especially important.
• Errors are less likely to happen when you use shortcuts because you are less likely to choose the wrong choice or click on the wrong cell.
• Streamlined Workflow: Keyboard shortcuts speed up your work by cutting down on the time you spend on jobs that you do over and over again. This lets you focus on more important parts of your job.
• Consistency: Many keyboard shortcuts work the same in different versions of Excel and other Microsoft Office programs, making it easy to switch between programs.

Best Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

You can save time and reduce the amount of work required to do tasks like formatting, copying, pasting, and sorting by using shortcuts, which enable immediate access to particular features and functions. Excel’s shortcuts make formula entry and editing more faster, allowing you to construct complex computations in a shorter amount of time.

Navigation Shortcuts:

Shortcut	Description
Ctrl + Arrow keys	Move to the edge of the current data region
Ctrl + Home	Move to the beginning of the worksheet
Ctrl + End	Move to the last cell of the worksheet
Ctrl + Page Up	Move to the previous sheet
Ctrl + Page Down	Move to the next sheet

Selection Shortcuts:

Shortcut	Description
Shift + Arrow keys	Extend the selection in the direction of the arrow key
Ctrl + Spacebar	Select the entire column
Shift + Spacebar	Select the entire row
Ctrl + A	Select the entire worksheet
Ctrl + Shift + 8	Toggle selection of current region

Editing Shortcuts:

Shortcut	Description
F2	Edit the active cell
Ctrl + X	Cut the selected cells or content
Ctrl + C	Copy the selected cells or content
Ctrl + V	Paste the cut or copied cells or content
Ctrl + Z	Undo the last action

Formatting Shortcuts:

Shortcut	Description
Ctrl + B	Apply bold formatting to the selected text
Ctrl + I	Apply italic formatting to the selected text
Ctrl + U	Apply underline formatting to the selected text
Ctrl + Shift + F	Open the Format Cells dialog box
Ctrl + Shift + ~	Apply the General number format

Formula Shortcuts:

Shortcut	Description
F4	Repeat the last action
Ctrl + ;	Enter the current date
Ctrl + :	Enter the current time
F9	Calculate the active worksheet
Shift + F9	Calculate the active workbook

Best Excel Keyboard Shortcuts of Different platforms

Using shortcuts to move between cells, rows, and columns in a spreadsheet enables you to navigate through huge spreadsheets more quickly. The graphical representation of your data can be improved by making use of keyboard shortcuts, which make it easier to select ranges of cells and apply formatting options.

For Mac:

Shortcut	Description
Command+C	Copy selected cells
Command+X	Cut selected cells
Command+V	Paste copied or cut cells
Command+Z	Undo the last action
Command+Y	Redo the last action
Command+B	Apply bold formatting
Command+I	Apply italic formatting
Command+U	Apply underline formatting
Command+S	Save the workbook
Command+A	Select all cells
Command+Up Arrow	Move to the beginning of the worksheet
Command+Down Arrow	Move to the last cell of the worksheet
Control+Tab	Switch to the next open workbook
Shift+Control+Tab	Switch to the previous open workbook
Command+F	Find and replace text or data
Command+H	Find and replace text or data
Command+1	Open the Format Cells dialog box
F2	Edit the active cell
Command+Shift+4	Create a new chart on a separate chart sheet
Option+Return	Start a new line in the same cell
Command+`	Cycle through open windows in Excel
Shift+F11	Insert a new worksheet

For Windows:

Shortcut	Description
Ctrl+C	Copy selected cells
Ctrl+X	Cut selected cells
Ctrl+V	Paste copied or cut cells
Ctrl+Z	Undo the last action
Ctrl+Y	Redo the last action
Ctrl+B	Apply bold formatting
Ctrl+I	Apply italic formatting
Ctrl+U	Apply underline formatting
Ctrl+S	Save the workbook
Ctrl+A	Select all cells
Ctrl+Home	Move to the beginning of the worksheet
Ctrl+End	Move to the last cell of the worksheet
Ctrl+Page Up	Switch to the previous worksheet
Ctrl+Page Down	Switch to the next worksheet
Ctrl+F	Find and replace text or data
Ctrl+H	Find and replace text or data
Ctrl+1	Open the Format Cells dialog box
F2	Edit the active cell
F4	Repeat the last action
F11	Create a new chart on a separate chart sheet
Alt+Enter	Start a new line in the same cell
Alt+Tab	Switch between open applications
Shift+F11	Insert a new worksheet
Shift+Spacebar	Select the entire row
Ctrl+Spacebar	Select the entire column
Ctrl+Shift+Plus Sign (+)	Insert cells, rows, or columns

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