Knowing Excel Shortcuts will increase your efficiency with designing your Excel dashboards. There is a previous post, "Excel Keyboard Shortcuts," that detailed Excel shortcuts that eliminated using the Excel Ribbon for functionality. That post did not cover certain Excel Shortcuts that are not part of the Excel Ribbon for functionality, which is the topic of this post.
This first set of shortcuts simplifies working with cells or the sheet. For example, entering an incorrect formula into a cell can be easily reversed with the Ctrl + Z shortcut. Reverse that action with Ctrl + Y.
Another popular short cut is for copying and pasting. Press Ctrl + C to copy cells and Ctrl + V to paste cells.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Z | Undo the last action |
| Ctrl + Y | Redo the last action |
| Ctrl + C | Copy selected cells |
| Ctrl + V | Paste copied data |
| Ctrl + X | Cut selected cells |
| Ctrl + S | Save the workbook |
| Ctrl + O | Open an existing workbook |
| Ctrl + N | Create a new workbook |
This next set of short cuts is helpful for formatting large sections. For example, hit Shift + Spacebar to select a row that is a title row for formatting in bold (Ctrl + B).
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| F2 | Edit the active cell |
| Ctrl + A | Select the entire worksheet |
| Ctrl + Spacebar | Select the entire column |
| Shift + Spacebar | Select the entire row |
| Ctrl + Shift + ↓ | Select all cells below |
| Ctrl + Shift + → | Select all cells to the right |
| Ctrl + Enter | Fill selected cells with the same entry |
| Alt + Enter | Start a new line inside the same cell |
Below, hitting the F4 function key toggles between absolute and relative cell references in a formula. For example, in the formula =SUM(B1:B20), select B1:B20 and hit the F4 function key and formula becomes $B$1:$B$20 and hit the F4 function key again and the formula becomes B1:$B$20, and hit the F4 function key again and the formula becomes $B$1:B20, and one last time the formula becomes B1:B20.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Alt + = | Insert the AutoSum formula |
| Ctrl + B | Apply or remove bold formatting |
| Ctrl + I | Apply or remove italic formatting |
| Ctrl + Shift + $ | Format text as currency |
| Ctrl + Shift + % | Format text as percentage |
| F4 | Toggle absolute and relative cell references in a formula |
| Ctrl + ` | Toggle between showing cell values and formulas |
This next set is helpful for navigating, such as Ctrl + Home to move to cell A1 and Ctrl + End to move to the last cell with data.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Home | Move to the very first cell (A1) |
| Ctrl + End | Move to the last cell with data |
| Ctrl + Page Down | Move to the next worksheet sheet |
| Ctrl + Page Up | Move to the previous worksheet sheet |
| Ctrl + F | Open the Find and Replace dialog box |
Once these Excel Shortcuts are familiar then there will be faster ways to design your spreadsheets. Now, there are fewer steps where needing to right-click on the Excel Ribbon and then navigating to the drop down menu and selecting the function.
Requirements: Excel 365 (locally installed, not in the Cloud) or more recent.
This post was assisted by AI and reviewed by Thom Hartle.