Microsoft Excel Keyboard Shortcuts: The Must Know List

The Microsoft Excel keyboard shortcuts will definitely make you more proficient in dealing with your tables. However, there are more than a hundred shortcuts in Excel and you can’t possibly know all. Also, some of them are rarely or never used so here’s our list with the most efficient Excel shortcuts.

What are the most efficient Excel shortcuts?

1. Frequently used shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Close a workbook	Ctrl + W
Open a workbook	Ctrl + O
Save a workbook	Ctrl + S
Copy selection	Ctrl + C
Paste selection	Ctrl + V
Undo recent action	Ctrl + Z
Remove cell contents	Delete
Cut selection	Ctrl + X
Apply bold formatting	Ctrl + B
Center align cell contents	Alt + H, A, C

2. Ribbon keyboard shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Go to the Home tab	Alt + H
Go to the Insert tab	Alt + N
Go to the Page Layout tab	Alt + P
Go to the Data tab	Alt + A
Go to the View tab	Alt + W
Open the context menu	Shift + F10
Add borders	Alt + H, B
Delete column	Alt + H, D, C
Go to the Formula tab	Alt + M
Hide the selected rows	Ctrl + 9

3. Navigating in cells

Action	Shortcut
Move to the edge of data region	Ctrl + Arrow Key
Move to the previous cell	Shift + Tab
Move to the next cell	Tab
Move to the beginning of the row	Home
Move to the beginning of the worksheet	Ctrl + Home
Move to the last cell in use	Ctrl + End
Move one screen down	Page Down
Move one screen up	Page Up
Move one screen to the right	Alt + Page Down
Move one screen to the left	Alt + Page Up

3. Formatting cells

Action	Shortcut
Open Format Cells dialog	Ctrl + 1
Apply or remove bold	Ctrl + B
Apply or remove italics	Ctrl + I
Apply or remove underline	Ctrl + U
Open the Font tab of the Format Cells dialog	Ctrl + Shift + F
Open the Fill tab of the Format Cells dialog	Alt + H, H
Apply the General number format	Ctrl + Shift + ~
Apply the Currency format	Ctrl + Shift + $
Apply the Percentage format	Ctrl + Shift + %
Apply the Date format	Ctrl + Shift + #

4. Working with data, functions, and the formula bar

Action	Shortcut
Start a new line in the same cell	Alt + Enter
Insert the AutoSum formula	Alt + =
Enter the current date	Ctrl + ;
Enter the current time	Ctrl + Shift + :
Display the Insert Function dialog	Shift + F3
Calculate all worksheets	F9
Calculate active worksheet	Shift + F9
Insert a function	Shift + F3
Toggle absolute and relative references	F4
Display the Function Arguments dialog	Ctrl + A

This guide covers a wide range of shortcuts to help you work more efficiently in Excel. If you need some great Word shortcuts, click the highlighted link for the complete list. We also have a handy guide with Windows 11 shortcuts.

If you need more specific shortcuts or have any other questions, feel free to ask in the comments below.