80 of the Most Useful Excel Shortcuts

You may not realize it, but clicking around an Excel spreadsheet with your mouse is wasting time—your precious time. There are hundreds of Excel shortcuts that you can use to complete a task without moving a hand off the keyboard. These shortcuts, also called hotkeys, consist of two or more keys pressed at the same time. Here are some of the most useful Excel hotkeys to make a wide range of spreadsheet tasks easier.

Save even more time by committing these Windows keyboard shortcuts and Word shortcuts to memory.

General

These are some simple Excel shortcuts that everyone needs, no matter what type of spreadsheets you’re creating.

General Excel shortcuts on a PC

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General Excel shortcuts on MacOS

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Working on an Apple? You’ll definitely want to know about these 41 Mac keyboard shortcuts.

Navigating Excel

Navigating with Excel hotkeys is typically different, depending on the operating system you’re using. Also, some navigation hotkeys don’t have equivalents in the other operating system.

Navigating Excel on a PC

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Find out the top Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts.

Navigating Excel on a Mac

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Selecting cells, rows, columns, etc.

When navigating through cells, rows, and columns the Excel shortcut keys are the same, no matter what operating system you use. Just press Shift + arrow keys to select a single cell or a range of cells. For columns, click on a cell in the column you want to select and then press CTRL + spacebar. Selecting a row is just as easy. Choose a cell in the row you want to select, and then press Shift + spacebar.

There is also an Excel hotkey for selecting a table or list. Choose a cell in the table or list and press CTRL + A.

Apple fan? Here are 9 Mac keyboard shortcuts every Mac user should know.

Formatting and editing cells

Formatting cells using Excel shortcuts is a lot faster than choosing options from menus. These are the most useful ones to know:

Formatting and editing cells on a PC

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Formatting and editing cells on a Mac

Pro tip: ALT + H + B + A applies a border to your selected data. “This shortcut allows me to highlight the most important columns or rows on the spreadsheet at first glance,” says Aaron Simmons, founder of TestPrepGenie.com. “Using ALT+H+B+A takes time to get used to but once you get a hang of it, you can easily apply borders on cells without spending time choosing from the box on the side or from the toolbar.

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Formula shortcuts

Excel formula shortcuts are for more advanced users, but they are lifesavers if you have a lot to do.

Formula shortcuts on a PC

Formula shortcuts on a Mac

Pro tip: “My favorite Excel keyboard shortcut is hands down F4! I work as an accountant for small businesses, so I do a lot of manual Excel reports and this saves me hours of work,” says Jennifer Miskelly. “Ever create a formula and drag it down only to realize that you need one part of the formula to stay constant and the other part to continue in sequence? Instead of spending an hour going through every cell and typing each formula, press F4 until the $ sign is applied to the part of the formula that you need to stay constant, then drag until you no longer need it.” Note: Mac users use F4 + Fn. Find out what all those computer “F” keys do.

Create a hotkey

If you find a PC Excel shortcut that you like and you use a Mac, you can always make your own hotkey by using Microsoft’s quick guide. For PC and Mac users, you can also set up a macro for a new hotkey using these steps.

Next, check out these most useful Zoom shortcuts that’ll make your life easier.

• Bruce Hogan, CEO of SoftwarePundit
• Aaron Simmons, founder of TestPrepGenie.com

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