Appendix Keyboard Shortcuts
As you’ve seen throughout the book, Excel supports many keyboard shortcuts for invoking commands from the keyboard rather than using the menus. You can save a lot of time and effort in your work by memorizing and using the keyboard shortcuts for the actions you take frequently, but unless your job is wildly varied, you won’t need to learn all the keyboard shortcuts there’ll be many shortcuts that you use so seldom they’d save you hardly any time even if you memorized them.
This appendix presents Excel’s full range of keyboard shortcuts by category. (Some of the keyboard shortcuts have the same effect in the other Office applications as well, but others have different effects—so don’t apply Excel’s shortcuts rashly to vital documents in other applications.)
For a list of Excel’s most widely used keyboard shortcuts, see the inside back cover of the book.
Some actions have multiple keyboard shortcuts for historical reasons: Microsoft introduced new keyboard shortcuts for actions but didn’t remove key combinations that users knew from older versions of the software. Some keyboard shortcuts cater to users with different keyboard layouts. For example, most keyboard shortcuts that use F11 or F12 are duplicated with shortcuts that don’t use F11 or F12, because some keyboards don’t have the F11 and F12 keys.
Action Keyboard Shortcut
Creating and Displaying Workbooks
Create a new default workbook CTRL-N
Minimize the active workbook window CTRL-F9
Restore or maximize the selected minimized workbook window CTRL-F10
Opening and Saving Workbooks
Display the Open dialog box CTRL-O, CTRL-F12, CTRL-ALT-F2
Display the Save As dialog
Save the active workbook CTRL-S, SHIFT-F12, ALT-SH IF T- F2
Display the Print dialog box CTRL-P, CTRL-SHIFT-F12
Moving and Resizing Windows
Maximize the application window ALT-F10
Maximize the active workbook window CTRL-F10
Restore the application window ALT-F5
Move the active workbook window CTRL-F7
Restore the active workbook window CTRL-F5
Resize the active workbook window CTRL-F8
Close the active window or exit the application ALT-F4
Close the active workbook window CTRL-F4, CTRL-W
Switch to the next application ALT-TA B
Switch to the previous application ALT-SH IF T- TAB
Action Keyboard Shortcut
Navigating Worksheets
Insert a new worksheet in the active workbook SHIFT-F11, ALT-S HIF T- F1
Move to the next worksheet CTRL-PAGEDOWN
Move to the previous worksheet CTRL-PAGEUP
Select the current worksheet and the next worksheet CTRL-SHIFT-PAGEDOWN
Select the current worksheet and the previous worksheet CTRL-SHIFT-PAGEUP
Move to the specified edge of the data region CTRL- , , , or
Move to the first cell in the row HOME
Move to the first cell in the worksheet CTRL-HOME
Move to the last used cell in the worksheet CTRL-END
Move down one screen PAGEDOWN
Move up one screen PAGEUP
Move to the right by one screen ALT-PAGEDOWN
Move to the left by one screen ALT-PAGEUP
Scroll the workbook to display the active cell CTRL-BACKSPAGE
Display the Go To dialog box CTRL-G
Selecting Items
Select the current column CTRL-SPACEBAR
Select the current row SHIFT-SPACEBAR
Select all cells on the current worksheet CTRL-A
Reduce the selection to the active cell SHIFT-BACKSPACE
Select all the objects on the current worksheet while retaining the current selection CTRL-SHIFT-SPACEBAR
Action Keyboard Shortcut
Launching Help, the Visual Basic Editor, and the Microsoft Script Editor Launch Help F1
Launch What’s This? Help SHIFT-F1
Display the Visual Basic Editor ALT-F11
Display the Microsoft Script Editor ALT-SH IF T- F11
Display the Macros dialog box ALT-F8
Enter the time in the active cell CTRL-SHIFT-:
Enter the date in the active cell CTRL-;
Fill the selected cells with the current entry CTRL-ENTER
Formatting Items
Toggle boldface CTRL-B
Toggle italic CTRL-I
Toggle underline CTRL-U
Apply left alignment CTRL-L
Apply centering CTRL-E
Apply right alignment CTRL-R
Display the Style dialog box ALT-'
Display the Format Cells dialog box CTRL-1
Apply the General number format CTRL-SHIFT-~
Action Keyboard Shortcut
Apply the two-decimal-place Currency format CTRL-SHIFT-$
Apply the Percentage format (no decimal places) CTRL-SHIFT-%
Apply the DD-MMM-YY date format CTRL-SHIFT-#
Apply the HH:MM AM/PM time format CTRL-SHIFT-@
Apply the two-decimal-place number format with the thousands CTRL-SHIFT-!
separator
Toggle strikethrough CTRL-5
Apply an outline border CTRL-SHIFT-&
Remove the outline border CTRL-SHIFT-_
Hiding and Unhiding Rows and Columns
Hide all selected rows CTRL-9
Hide all selected columns CTRL-0
Unhide hidden rows in the selection CTRL-SHIFT-(
Unhide hidden columns in the selection CTRL-SHIFT-)
Cutting, Copying, and Pasting
Copy the current selection to the Clipboard CTRL-C, CTRL-INSERT
Paste the current contents of the Clipboard CTRL-V, SHIFT-INSERT
Cut the current selection to the Clipboard CTRL-X, SHIFT-DELETE
Copy the screen to the Clipboard as a picture PRTSCR
Copy the active window to the Clipboard as a picture ALT-PRT SCR
Display the contents of the current or next smart tag ALT-SH IF T- F10
Repeating Actions and Invoking Tools
Undo the previous action CTRL-Z
Display the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box CTRL-F
Display the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box CTRL-H
Display the Insert Hyperlink dialog box CTRL-K
Run the Spelling Checker F7
Research the word ALT-CL ICK
Repeat the previous action CTRL-Y
Working in Pivot Tables
Select the entire pivot table CTRL-SHIFT-*
Group the selected items ALT-SH IF T-
Ungroup the grouped items ALT-SH IF T-
Creating a Chart
Create a chart from the selected range F11, ALT-F1
Action Keyboard Shortcut
Launching Help, the Visual Basic Editor, and the Microsoft Script Editor Launch Help F1
Launch What’s This? Help SHIFT-F1
Display the Visual Basic Editor ALT-F11
Display the Microsoft Script Editor ALT-SH IF T- F11
