Excel Shortcuts

Excel Shortcuts

Many commands in Microsoft Excel 2007 have keyboard shortcut equivalents. But why bother learning what they are? The most important reason is that they can speed up your workflow. If you consider that your hands are already positioned above the keyboard when they are typing in data, you can see why performing commands using the keyboard is quicker than moving them away from the keyboard, gripping the mouse, locating and clicking the ribbon tab you need and then finding and clicking a command. It may take time to learn Excel shortcuts but it is wise to do this as it will save time in the long run. Most people are aware of the more commonly used shortcuts such as copy (CTRL-c) and paste (ctr-v) but there are many, many more that can make your life in front of an Excel spreadsheet that much more comfortable. There are two basic types of keyboard shortcuts: access keys and key combinations.

Access Keys

Access keys give you access to the Ribbon. They relate directly to the tabs, commands, and other things that you see on the screen. You use access keys by pressing the ALT key to display the key tips followed by another key or a sequence of other keys.

Every single command on the Ribbon, the Microsoft Office Button menu, and the Quick Access Toolbar has an access key, and every access key is assigned a Key Tip. If you are familiar with the old system of underscored letters on menu items, you can think of Key Tips as the new version of those.

Key Combinations

Key combinations perform specific commands. They are unrelated to the Ribbon or other things that you see on screen. The keys need to be pressed together to trigger the action and most, but not all, involve pressing CTRL plus other keys (for example, CTRL+C to copy). This page will focus on Excel shortcuts in the form of key combinations. Sometimes, it's possible to determine what a keyboard shortcut is by hovering over a particular command in the ribbon and reading the tooltip that displays.

Excel Workbook Level Shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts affect the styling of text in Excel:

• Copy: CTRL-C
• Paste: CTRL-V
• Cut: CTRL-X
• Print: CTRL-P
• Insert a new worksheet: SHIFT-F11
• Move to the next sheet in the workbook: CTRL+PAGE DOWN
• Move to the previous sheet in the workbook: CTRL+PAGE UP
• Rename the current sheet: ALT+O, H, R
• Delete the current sheet: ALT+E, L

Shortcuts For Navigating Excel

The following Excel shortcuts help you get around your worksheets:

• Move from cell to cell: use the arrow keys
• Move one cell to the right: TAB
• Move one cell to the left: SHIFT+TAB
• Move to the edge of the current data region: CTRL+arrow key
• Move to the beginning of the row: HOME
• Move to the beginning of the worksheet: CTRL+HOME
• Move to the last cell on the worksheet: CTRL+END
• Move down one screen: PAGE DOWN
• Move up one screen: PAGE UP
• Move one screen to the right: ALT+PAGE DOWN
• Move one screen to the left: ALT+PAGE UP
• Switch to the next pane in a worksheet that has been split (Window menu, Split command): F6

Text Formatting Shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts affect the styling of text in Excel:

• Bold: CTRL-B
• Italic: CTRL-I
• Underline: CTRL-U

Text And Object Manipulation

The following Excel shortcuts are used on text and objects such as charts and graphs:

• Copy: CTRL-C
• Paste: CTRL-V
• Cut: CTRL-X