38 Excel Keyboard Shortcuts, Work with Excel Faster

This guide provides a practical overview of 38 Excel Keyboard Shortcuts, Work with Excel Faster, including its main features, benefits, limitations, and important considerations.

These keyboard shortcuts are applicable to all versions of Excel 2003, Excel 2007, Excel 2010, Excel 2013, Excel 2016, and Excel 2019. Please note that an operation can be performed by two other keyboard combinations. each other even though we only knew one before.

Below are common Excel keyboard shortcuts that help quickly format data in Microsoft Excel, please read it for your reference.

Shortcuts to help format cells

Ctrl + 1: Display the Format dialog box.
Ctrl + B (or Ctrl + 2): Apply or cancel bold formatting.
Ctrl + I (or Ctrl + 3): Apply or cancel italic formatting.
Ctrl + U (or Ctrl + 4): Apply or cancel an underline.
Ctrl + 5: Apply or cancel strikethrough formatting.
Alt + '(apostrophe): Display the Style dialog box.

Keyboard shortcuts help in formatting numbers

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

Shortcuts to help manipulate cells

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

Formula shortcuts

=: Start a formula.
Shift + F3: Display the Insert Function dialog box.
Ctrl + A: Display input method after entering formula name.
Ctrl + Shift + A: Insert arguments in formula after entering formula name.
Shift + F3: Insert a function into a formula.
Ctrl + Shift + Enter: Enter the formula as an array formula.
F9: Counts all worksheets in all workbooks.
Shift + F9: Calculate the active spreadsheet.
Ctrl + Shift + U: Switch to expand or collapse the formula bar.
Ctrl + ': Toggle Show formulas in cells instead of values.
Ctrl + Pg Dn (PageDown): The shortcut switches Sheet to sheet right on 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, bottom, left edge, right edge of a worksheet. This shortcut will prevent us from having to use the mouse to drag the slider to find the bottom cell, especially with a long spreadsheet. When you use the Ctrl key with any arrow keys in the direction you want to move, you will quickly get to the position you are looking for.
Ctrl + arrow keys + Shift: localize the range of data to the end of the table instead of just moving the selection box to the bottom of the table.
Double click the left mouse button in the cell: copy the formula to the bottom of the table. Normal action to copy down the rows below that when appears the + sign, then hold and drag the mouse until the bottom of the table. However, faster, you place the mouse on the plus position, double click the left mouse button and the formula will be copied down. Ctrl + Shift + 1 (!): Format the cell as a decimal number with 2 numbers after the comma.
Ctrl + Shift + 4 ($): format currency cell $.
Ctrl + Shift + 5 (%): format the cell as number%.
F4: turns a cell into absolute value. When copying formulas from different cell locations like B1, C2. will automatically change when copied to the bottom line to become B2, C3. To prevent the formula from jumping, use the $ key before and after the cell letter to lock it. And a cell can be quickly locked using F4.
&: combine two-cell content. Jump to the 3rd column and type the formula = cell 1 & "" & cell 2, in which the "" part to create a space between the contents of 2 cells after merging. Then copy the formula to the bottom of the table, a column will appear with the content of combining columns 1 and 2.
Alt + =: quickly sum a column. Highlight the calculated area and highlight 1 blank cell below then press Alt + =, the last cell value is the sum of the cells in the selection.
Ctrl + Shift +; (semi-colon): quickly fill the current time in a worksheet.
Ctrl +; (semi-colon): enter the current date in the cell.
Ctrl + ~ (edge 1): see all cells in formulas.