Microsoft Excel keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet

Most of the datasets we download from organizations such as Statistics Canada, US Census Bureau, and the United Nations are either CSV or Microsoft Excel files. So, we use Microsoft Excel regularly to clean and organize the data and perform analysis. To help speed up the process, we’ve started putting together a list of keyboard shortcuts that we typically use and have shared them below. We’ll keep adding to this as we come across more that we find helpful. If you know of some shortcuts that you would recommend adding, leave them in the comments.

Basic workbook shortcuts

We recently learned that Excel has a built-in spellcheck function. Highlight a specific cell and press F7 to fire up the spell checker. Or, if you want Excel to scan your entire worksheet, highlight the cells with the data you want to spell check and then click F7. Listed below are other basic workbook shortcuts to help you quickly undo or redo an action, save the workbook, and insert comments.

The basics

CTRL N	Open new workbook
CTRL S	Save workbook
CTRL W	Close workbook
CTRL P	Print workbook
CTRL Z	Undo action
CTRL Y	Redo action
F1	Open help window
CTRL F	Find
CTRL H	Find and replace
F7	Spell check worksheet
CTRL SHIFT F2	Insert/edit comment
SHIFT F2	Insert/edit note
ALT	Activate ribbon

Daty entry shortcuts

Want to enter data more quickly? These shortcuts will help. Whether you want to fill contents across a row or down a column, try these shortcuts the next time you are entering data to your worksheet.

Enter data faster

F2	Activate editing mode
ALT ENTER	Insert new line in cell
CTRL ENTER	Fill contents in selected cells
CTRL D	Fill contents down selected cells
CTRL R	Fill contents across selection
ALT ▼	Display autocomplete list
CTRL ;	Enter current date

Formatting cells and data within cells

Whenever we share data with others, we typically format the dataset to call out specific information or format numbers in a certain way for readability and to help quickly identify data that we want to focus on or direct attention to. Sometimes it’s as simple as bolding or italicizing text, or changing numbers to a specific format like dollar amounts or percentages when you’re cleaning up your data. These shortcuts help speed up the process.

Formatting data within cells

CTRL 1	Open format cells box
CTRL SHIFT &	Outside borders
CTRL SHIFT _	Remove borders
ALT ‘	Open cell style box
CTRL B	Bold text
CTRL U	Underline text
CTRL I	Italicize text
CTRL 5	Strikethrough text
CTRL K	Insert hyperlink
CTRL SHIFT $	Format as currency
CTRL SHIFT %	Format as percentage
CTRL SHIFT ^	Format as scientific number
CTRL SHIFT #	Format as date
CTRL SHIFT @	Format as time
CTRL SHIFT !	Format as number

Shortcuts for formatting worksheets and workbooks

When you are working with a large dataset, not every column or row will be relevant to your analysis. Hiding rows and columns you don’t need can help you focus on the most important data. With a few keystrokes, you can hide information you don’t need. In other instances, certain data may not show up properly, in which case you’ll need to expand the width of the cells. There’s a shortcut to autofit content in rows and columns. We often use the first four shortcuts listed below, especially when we work with datasets from Statistics Canada that are downloaded in a format meant for database loading, which tend to include information we don’t need for our analysis.

Formatting the workbook

CTRL 9	Hide rows
CTRL 0	Hide columns
ALT H O I	Autofit columns
ALT H O A	Autofit rows
CTRL SHIFT +	Insert cells
CTRL -	Delete Cells
SHIFT F11	Insert new workbook
ALT W VG	Remove gridlines
ALT SHIFT ►	Group rows/columns
ALT SHIFT ◄	Ungroup rows/columns
CTRL F1	Hide/unhide group
CTRL SHIFT F1	Full screen mode
CTRL ALT +	Zoom in
CTRL ALT -	Zoom out

Selecting, copying, and pasting data

If you are looking for shortcuts to help you quickly select specific data, copy and paste it with or without formatting, then check out the list below. Except for the common cut and paste, many of these were new to us, but are making their way into our toolbox. We used to perform many of these tasks with a mouse, but we’re able to move much more quickly by using these keyboard shortcuts. Flipping between worksheets using CTRL PGDN and CTRL PGUP rather than using a mouse has been a game changer for us. Think of it as using CTRL Tab to cycle between your applications.

Working with the data

CTRL Arrow	Move to furthest cell in the direction of the arrow
CTRL PGDN	Move to the next worksheet
CTRL PGUP	Move to previous worksheet
CTRL HOME	Move to first cell in the worksheet
CTRL END	Move to the last cell in the worksheet
SHIFT SPACE	Select Row
CTRL SPACE	Select column
CTRL A	Select all data
ESC	Unselect data
SHIFT Arrow	Extend selection by one cell in the direction of the arrow
CTRL SHIFT Arrow	Extend selection to the furthest cell in the director of the arrow
CTRL G	Open go to box
CTRL X	Cut selection
CTRL C	Copy selection
CTRL ALT V	Open Paste Special Box
CTRL SHIFT V	Paste special; strips out all formatting
CTRL ‘	Copy formula from above
CTRL SHIFT ‘	Copy value from above

Analyzing data

Quickly toggle on filters, insert tables, and charts with a few keyboard clicks. After you have cleaned up your data, these shortcuts will help you speed up your analysis. We are big fans of pivot tables, and hitting ALT N V gives us a quick way to create one. We also love adding filters to our columns to quickly filter through data.

Data analysis

ALT F1	Insert chart
CTRL T	Insert table
ALT N V	Insert Pivot Table
Alt =	Autosum data
CTRL E	Flash fill
ALT A M	Remove duplicates
CTRL SHIFT L	Toggle Filters
ALT ;	Select visible cells only
ALT A C	Clear filters
SHIFT F3	Open insert function box
F4	Toggle absolute/relative references
CTRL [	Move to cell reference
F9	Calculate workbook
CTRL SHIFT F3	Define name using headers
CTRL ~	Toggle displaying formulas and values