There are bags of shortcuts for Excel out there, but learning all at a time can be crushing, confusing, and ultimately useless. A list of 64 keyboard shortcuts are given to format cells, navigate the worksheets, and carry out other operations. Learning keyboard shortcuts is easy and amazing work. But once you have learned these shortcuts, it will save you huge amount of time.

For example, if you have to copy a bit of text, you have to go through all these steps:

  1. Take the mouse and move the cursor to the top left of your screen.
  2. On File click the right button of mouse
  3. From the drop down menu select the copy option

You will also get the same outcome by hitting Ctrl + C on your keyboard. But it is easy to use Ctrl + C rather than search for your mouse every time. You have to cultivate the habit of using your keyboard rather than your mouse. Using keyboard shortcuts will improve your entire workflow.  First learn one keyboard shortcut and master than one shortcut before moving to the next one. Many of these keyboard shortcuts are common across the various Microsoft office applications. If you have learnt them on excel you will use them on Word and PowerPoint too.

You will observe the time saving benefits of learning that first keyboard shortcut. Now, you will find your ability to memorize the shortcuts and also improves your ability quite dramatically. Activities such as copying, pasting, navigating between spreadsheets, adding formatting or removing formatting are serious skills for a decent excel user.

These keyboard shortcuts saves a lot of time each week. If you have to be an excel expert then the shortcuts are here for you to make:

Editing and saving shortcuts:

  1. F2 – Edit the contents of a cell
  2. CTRL + C – Copy all the data (or) copy contents of an entire worksheet to another worksheet etc.
  3. Ctrl + V – Paste
  4. Ctrl + ALT + V – Paste specific attributes of a cell
  5. Ctrl + S – Save 
  6. Ctrl + X – Cut
  7. Ctrl + Z – Undo Last action 
  8. Ctrl + A – Select all (highlight all the data)
  9. Ctrl + F4 – Close the current workbook.
  10. Ctrl + F1- Hide or display the Ribbon.
  11. Alt + Shift + F1 – Insert a new spreadsheet tab.
  12. F12 – Display the Save As dialog.

Formatting shortcuts:

  1. Ctrl + 1 – Access box formatting options
  2. Shift + Ctrl +! – Format as a Number
  3. Shift + Ctrl + # – Format as a Date
  4. Shift + Ctrl + $ – Accounting Number Format (format as a currency)
  5. Shift + Ctrl + ^ – Scientific format
  6. Shift + Ctrl + @ – Format as a Time
  7. Shift + Ctrl + % – Format as a Percent
  8. Alt +H + O – Increase decimal places (show more decimals)
  9. Alt +H + 9 – Decrease decimal places (show fewer decimals)
  10. Shift +Ctrl + – – Access general formatting
  11. F4 – Apply format again
  12. Ctrl + I – Italic your text
  13. Ctrl + U – Underline your text
  14. Ctrl + B – Bold your text
  15. Ctrl + F5 – Strikethrough (or) remove strikethrough to your text
  16. Alt + H + A + C – Center your content
  17. Alt + H + A + L – Align your content to the left
  18. Alt + H + A + R – Align your content to the right
  19. Ctrl + D – Fill down copies contents and format of the topmost cell in the column.

Navigating between worksheets shortcuts:

  1. Ctrl + Home – Go to the first cell in the spreadsheet
  2. Ctrl + End – Move to the last cell in the worksheet
  3. Page Up – Move up a screen
  4. Page Down – Move down a screen
  5. Ctrl + Right Arrow – Move one word to the right
  6. Ctrl + Left Arrow – Move one word to the left
  7. Right arrow key – Move one cell to the right
  8. Left arrow key – Move one cell to the left
  9. Up arrow key – Move one cell to the up
  10. Down arrow key – Move one cell to the down 
  11. Ctrl + Page Up – Move to previous worksheet
  12. Ctrl + Page Down – Move to next worksheet
  13. Home – Move to the beginning of a string

Selecting shortcuts

  1. Shift + Right Arrow – Extend your current cell selection by one addition cell to the right
  2. Shift + Left Arrow – Extend your current cell selection by one addition cell to the left
  3. Shift + Up Arrow – Extend your current cell selection by one addition cell to the up
  4. Shift + Down Arrow – Extend your current cell selection by one addition cell to the down
  5. Shift + Space – Select entire row
  6. Ctrl + Space – Select entire column
  7. Esc – Cancel selection

Border formatting shortcuts:

  1. Ctrl + Shift + & – Add border outline
  2. Alt + R – Add or Remove right border
  3. Alt + L – Add or Remove left border
  4. Alt + T – Add or Remove top border
  5. Alt + B – Add or Remove bottom border
  6. Ctrl + Shift + _ – Remove borders

Quick Formulas:

  1. Alt + = – Auto sum selected range of cells
  2. F9 – Calculate worksheet
  3. Shift + F9 – Calculate only active worksheet
  4. Ctrl + Shift + U – Expand or collapse formula bar

Entering time and date stamps into cells:

  1. To enter the current date into a cell – Ctrl + ;
  2. To enter the current time into a cell – Ctrl + Shift + ; 

This is one of the most used shortcuts on the PC. Switch between windows on your PC – Alt + Tab. These shortcuts are really powerful in creating your own spreadsheet.