Valuable Excel shortcuts you should know

It is undeniable that the Microsoft Office software suite is widely available worldwide, as the number of users is increasing, especially since the giant Microsoft launched Office 2019. The more versions are upgraded, the Office suite not only changes the interface but also provides many more useful features to serve all diverse needs such as editing, presenting or calculating user data.

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With Microsoft Excel, calculation work will become easier, especially for accountants. Basic functions in Excel will help a lot in calculation work, when the number of formulas you handle is too "huge". However, if you use the mouse to calculate the calculations, the speed will decrease a lot. If you can master the formulas, the shortcut keys on Excel will be much faster and more convenient. Let's join WebTech360 to collect for yourself the invaluable Excel shortcut keys in the summary below.

1. Shortcut keys for inserting and editing data in Excel

Undo/Redo shortcut keys:

• Ctrl + Z : Undo previous action (multiple levels) - Undo.
• Ctrl + Y : Go to next action (multiple levels) - Redo.

Working with Clipboard:

• Ctrl + C : Copy the contents of the selected cell.
• Ctrl + X : Cut the contents of the selected cell.
• Ctrl + V : Paste the contents from the clipboard into the selected cell.
• Ctrl + Alt+ V : If data exists in clipboard: Displays the Paste Special dialog box.

Editing shortcuts inside Excel cells:

A cell in Excel contains all the data you are working with. There are several different shortcuts that can be applied to a cell, such as editing the cell, aligning the cell contents, adding a border to the cell, adding a border to all selected cells, and so on. Here are some shortcuts for editing inside an Excel cell.

• F2 : Edit the selected cell with the mouse cursor at the end of the line.
• Alt + Enter : Line break in the same Excel cell .
• Enter : Complete entering a cell and move down to the cell below.
• Shift + Enter : Complete entering a cell and move to the cell above.
• Tab/Shift + Tab : Complete entering a cell and move to the cell to the right/or left.
• Esc : Cancel editing in a cell.
• Backspace : Deletes the character to the left of the text cursor, or clears selections.
• Delete : Delete the character to the right of the text cursor, or delete the selection.
• Ctrl + Delete : Delete text to the end of the line.
• Ctrl + Shift + : (colon) : Insert current time.
• Alt + H + F + C: Shortcut key to color in Excel, select the cell with the data you want to change color, press Alt then press H, still hold Alt then press F, continue to hold Alt and press C then select the color you want to change.
• Alt + H + A + C : center cell content
• Alt + H + H : Color
• Alt + H + B : Add border
• Ctrl + Shift + _ : Remove outline border
• Ctrl + Shift + & : Add borders to selected cells

Edit active or selected cells:

• Ctrl + D : Copy the content in the cell above.
• Ctrl + R : Copy the left cell.
• Ctrl + " : Copy the content of the cell above and keep it in editing mode.
• Ctrl + ' : Copy the formula of the cell above and in editing state.
• Ctrl + – : Displays the delete cell/row/column menu.
• Ctrl + Shift + + : Displays the insert cell/row/column menu.
• Shift + F2 : Insert/Edit a comment cell.
• Shift + F10, then M : Delete comment.
• Alt + F1 : Create and insert a chart with data in the current range.
• F11 : Create and insert a chart with the data in the current range in a separate chart sheet.
• Ctrl + K : Insert a link.
• Enter (in a cell containing a link): Activate the link.

Hide and show elements:

• Ctrl + 9 : Hide selected row.

• Ctrl + Shift + 9 : Unhide the hidden row in the selection containing that row.
• Ctrl + 0 (number 0) : Hide selected column.

• Ctrl + Shift + 0 (number 0) : Unhide the hidden column in the selected area.
  Note: In Excel 2010, this does not work. To show the hidden column, press: Ctrl + Z.
• Alt + Shift + ▷ : Group rows or columns.
• Alt + Shift + ◁ : Ungroup rows or columns.

2. Excel shortcuts for navigating spreadsheets

• Arrow keys ▽◁▷△ : Move up, down, left, or right in a spreadsheet.
• Pg Dn/Pg Up : Move to the bottom of the spreadsheet/ to the top of the spreadsheet.
• Alt + Pg Dn/Alt + Pg Up : Move one screen right/left in a spreadsheet.
• T ab/Shift + Tab : Move one cell to the right/left in a spreadsheet.
• Home : Move to the first cell of a row in a worksheet.
• Ctrl + Home : Move to the first cell of a spreadsheet.
• Ctrl + End : Move to the last cell containing content on a worksheet.
• Ctrl + F : Displays the Find and Replace dialog box (with the Find menu open).
• Ctrl + H : Displays the Find and Replace dialog box (Replace section is open).
• Shift + F4 : Repeat the previous search.
• Ctrl + G (or F5 ) : Displays the 'Go to' dialog box.
• Ctrl + ◁/Ctrl + ▷ : Inside a cell: Move to the cell to the left or right of that cell.
• Alt + ▽ : Display the AutoComplete list.

3. Shortcut keys for working with selected data

Select cells:

• Shift + Space (Spacebar) : Select the entire row.
• Ctrl + Space (Spacebar) : Select the entire column.
• Ctrl + Shift + * (asterisk) : Select the entire area around the active cell.
• Ctrl + A (or Ctrl + Shift + spacebar) : Select the entire spreadsheet (or areas containing data).
• Ctrl + Shift + Pg Up : Select current and previous sheet in the same Excel file.
• Shift + ▽◁▷△ : Extend the selection from a selected cell.
• Ctrl + Shift + ▽/△ : Select/deselect all cells from the selected cell to the end of the column
• Shift + Pg Dn/Shift + Pg Up : Extend the selected area to the bottom of the screen / to the top of the screen.
• Shift + Home : Extend the selected area to the first cell in the row.
• Ctrl + Shift + Home : Extend the selection to the beginning of the spreadsheet.
• Ctrl + Shift + End : Extend the selection to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower right corner).

Management in selected areas:

• F8 : Enables the ability to extend the selection (using additional arrow keys) without holding down the Shift key.
• Shift + F8 : Add a range (adjacent or non-adjacent) of cells to the selection. Use the arrow keys and Shift + arrow keys to add to the selection.
• Enter/Shift + Enter : Move the current cell selection down/up within the currently selected area.
• Tab/Shift + Tab : Move the current cell selection right/left within the selected area.
• Esc : Cancel the selected area.

Edit inside cell:

• Shift + ◁/Shift + ▷ : Select or deselect one character to the left/right.
• Ctrl + Shift + ◁/Ctrl + Shift + ▷ : Select or deselect one word to the left/right.
• Shift + Home/Shift + End : Select from text cursor to beginning/end of cell.

4. Excel shortcuts related to data formatting:

Cell formatting:

• Ctrl + 1 : Displays the Format dialog box.
• Ctrl + B ( or Ctrl + 2) : Apply or remove bold formatting.
• Ctrl + I ( or Ctrl + 3) : Apply or remove italic formatting.
• Ctrl + U ( or Ctrl + 4 ): Apply or remove an underline.
• Ctrl + 5 : Apply or remove strikethrough formatting.
• Alt + ' (single quote) : Displays the Style dialog box.

Number formats:

• Ctrl + Shift + $ : Apply currency format with two decimal places.
• Ctrl + Shift + ~ : Apply General number format.
• Ctrl + Shift + # : Apply date format as: day, month and year.
• Ctrl + Shift + @ : Applies time format with hours, minutes, and indicates AM or PM.
• Ctrl + Shift + ^ : Apply scientific number format with two decimal places.
• F4 : Repeat last formatting selection.

Cell:

• Alt + H, A, R : Align cell to the right.
• Alt + H , A, C : Center cell.
• Alt + H , A, I : Align cell to the left.

Formula shortcuts:

• = : Start a formula.
• Shift + F3: Displays the Insert Function dialog box.
• Ctrl + A : Displays the input method after entering the name of the formula.
• Ctrl + Shift + A : Insert arguments in the formula after typing the name of the formula.
• Shift + F3 : Insert a function into a formula.
• Ctrl + Shift + Enter : Enter the formula as an array formula.
• F9 : Calculate all tables in all worksheets.
• Shift + F9 : Calculate active worksheet.
• Ctrl + Shift + U : Toggle the formula bar expand or collapse mode.
• Ctrl + ' : Toggles the mode to show formulas in cells instead of values.
• Ctrl + Pg Dn (PageDown): Shortcut key to switch Sheet to the sheet immediately to the right of the open sheet
• Ctrl + Pg Up (PageUp) : Switch to the sheet to the left of the open sheet.

• Ctrl + arrow keys : move to the top row, bottom row, left edge, right edge of the spreadsheet. This shortcut will help us not have to use the mouse to drag the slider to find the last cell of the table, especially with long spreadsheets. When using the Ctrl key with any arrow key in the direction you want to move, you will quickly reach the location you need to find.

• Ctrl + arrow keys + Shift : select the data range to the end of the table instead of just moving the selected cell to the end of the table.

• Double left click on the cell : copy the formula to the bottom of the table. The normal operation to copy to the rows below when the + sign appears, hold and drag the mouse to the bottom of the table. However, it is faster to place the mouse on the plus sign, double left click and the formula will be copied down.

• Ctrl + Shift + 1 (!) : format cell as decimal number with 2 digits after decimal point.
• Ctrl + Shift + 4 ($) : format currency cell $.
• Ctrl + Shift + 5 (%) : format cell as number %.

• F4 : converts a cell to an absolute value. When copying a formula from different cell positions such as B1, C2,... it will automatically change when copied to the next line to become B2, C3. To prevent the formula from automatically jumping numbers like above, use the $ key before and after the cell character to lock it. And to quickly lock a cell, you can use F4.

• & : combine the contents of two cells. Jump to the 3rd column and type the formula =cell 1&" "&cell 2, in which the " " part is to create a space between the contents of the 2 cells after merging. Then copy the formula to the bottom of the table, a column with the combined content from column 1 and column 2 will appear.

• Alt +=: quickly calculate the total of a column. Highlight the area to be calculated and highlight an empty cell below, then press Alt +=, the value of the last cell is the sum of the cells in the selected area.

• Ctrl + Shift +; (semicolon) : quickly fills in the current time in a cell in a spreadsheet.

• Ctrl + ; (semicolon) : enter the current date in the cell.

• Ctrl + ~ (next to number 1) : view all cells in formula form.

5. Keyboard shortcuts related to tables and filters

• ⌃ + T : Insert table
• Ctrl + Shift + L : Toggle auto filter
• Alt + ↓ : Activate filter
• Shift + Space : Select rows in a table
• Ctrl + Space : Select column in table
• Ctrl + A : Select table
• Ctrl + Shift + T : Toggle the total row of the table

6. Shortcuts related to data entry

• Enter : Enter and move down
• Shift + Enter : Enter and move up
• Tab : Enter and move right
• Shift + Tab : Enter and move left
• Ctrl + Enter : Completes the entry and stays in the same cell
• Ctrl + Enter : Enter the same data into multiple cells
• Ctrl + ; : Insert current date
• Ctrl + Shift + ; : Insert current time
• Ctrl + D : Fill down from the cell above
• Ctrl + R : Fill right from the left cell
• Ctrl + ' : Copy formula from cell above
• Ctrl + Shift + " : Copy value from cell above
• Ctrl + K : Add hyperlink
• Alt + ↓ : Show autocomplete list

7. Keyboard shortcuts related to number formatting

• Ctrl + Shift + ~ : Apply general formatting
• Ctrl + Shift + $ : Apply currency formatting
• Ctrl + Shift + % : Apply percentage format
• Ctrl + Shift + ^ : Apply scientific format
• Ctrl + Shift + # : Apply date format
• Ctrl + Shift + @ : Apply time format
• Ctrl + Shift + ! : Apply number formatting

Excel supports a lot of keyboard shortcuts to help you work efficiently and increase productivity. Instead of accessing the toolbar with the mouse, you can use two or three keystrokes to perform important functions. Isn't that easier and time-saving? Using Excel keyboard shortcuts significantly increases your speed and therefore reduces your working time.

Now the question is, do you need to memorize these shortcuts, then the answer is no. However, it would be an advantage if you can memorize a few of them. With regular practice, you will be able to memorize most of the common shortcuts in Excel.

So we have summarized useful shortcuts when you work with Excel spreadsheets. With these shortcuts, your operations will be much easier, saving time processing data tables and quickly completing the volume of spreadsheets in Excel. Remember to save this article to use whenever needed.

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