Excel keyboard shortcuts for Mac and Windows, by task

The quickest way into Excel from the keyboard is to learn the keys by job, starting with the ones that move and select. Ctrl+Arrow on Windows, or Cmd+Arrow on a Mac, jumps to the edge of the data; add Shift and it selects everything on the way. After that come filling, editing a cell, locking a reference, inserting rows, formatting and pasting values, each below with the Mac and Windows keys side by side. Many keys are the same on both systems or swap Ctrl for Cmd; the ones that don’t have a section of their own. Every key was checked on October 28, 2026 against Microsoft’s Keyboard shortcuts in Excel, for Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows 11 and macOS 27.

The twenty to learn first, in order, are on the Excel sheet, one page to print. This guide explains them and adds the keys around them.

Start with the keys that move and select

Everything in Excel acts on a cell or a range, so reaching one without the mouse comes first.

Job	Mac	Windows
Jump to the edge of the data	Cmd+Arrow	Ctrl+Arrow
Select to the edge of the data	Cmd+Shift+Arrow	Ctrl+Shift+Arrow
Grow the selection one cell	Shift+Arrow	Shift+Arrow
Select the whole row	Shift+Space	Shift+Space
Select the whole column	Ctrl+Space	Ctrl+Space
Select the data around the cell, then more	Cmd+A	Ctrl+A
Go to the top of the sheet	Ctrl+Home (Ctrl+Fn+Left on a MacBook)	Ctrl+Home
Go to the last used cell	Ctrl+End (Ctrl+Fn+Right on a MacBook)	Ctrl+End

The edge of the data is the last filled cell before a blank one. From a header, Ctrl+↓Down or Cmd+↓Down lands on the column’s last row, and adding Shift selects the whole column of figures, ready to format, copy or sum. If the column has gaps, the jump stops at each one; press it again to carry on. Ctrl+A and Cmd+A grow in steps: the first press takes the block of data around the active cell, and each press after widens it, up to the whole sheet.

The mouse still wins one job here: a cell you can see on screen, far from the one you’re in. Click it once, then let the keys take over.

Enter and fill without retyping

Job	Mac	Windows
Fill down from the top cell of a selection	Cmd+D	Ctrl+D
Fill right from the left cell	Cmd+R	Ctrl+R
Enter the same thing in every selected cell	Cmd+Return	Ctrl+Enter
Start a new line inside a cell	Option+Return	Alt+Enter
Enter today’s date	Ctrl+;	Ctrl+;
Confirm and move up instead of down	Shift+Return	Shift+Enter
Confirm and move right or left	TaborShift+Tab	TaborShift+Tab

Two of these replace most dragging of the fill handle. Fill down copies the top cell into every cell selected below it, formulas included, with relative references moving one row at a time. Ctrl+Enter, or Cmd+Return on a Mac, works the other way round: select the range first, type the value or formula once, and every selected cell gets it.

Edit a cell and lock a reference

Typing into a selected cell replaces what’s in it. To change it instead, edit it: F2 on Windows, Ctrl+U on a Mac. The cursor lands at the end of the contents, the arrow keys move through the text instead of between cells, Esc throws the edit away, and Enter or Return keeps it.

On Windows, pressing F2 again while you edit a formula switches to Point mode, where the arrow keys pick a cell for the formula instead of moving the cursor.

To lock a reference, put the cursor in or just after it and press F4 on Windows or Cmd+T on a Mac. Each press moves to the next form: A1 becomes $A$1, then A$1, then $A1, then A1 again. A $ before the letter fixes the column; a $ before the number fixes the row. Locking is what lets one formula fill down a whole column and still point at the same rate cell or lookup table. XLOOKUP vs VLOOKUP builds a lookup this way, from selecting the ranges to filling it down.

Job	Mac	Windows
Edit the active cell	Ctrl+U	F2
Lock a reference with $	Cmd+T	F4
AutoSum	Cmd+Shift+T	Alt+=
Insert a function (Formula Builder on a Mac)	Fn+Shift+F3	Shift+F3
Show formulas instead of results	Ctrl+`	Ctrl+`

Tip: outside a formula, F4 on Windows repeats your last action, as Ctrl+Y does. Format one cell, select the next and press F4 to give it the same format. Microsoft’s Mac list gives Cmd+Y only as Redo.

Insert and delete rows, columns and tables

Inserting is two keys once the row is selected:

1. Select the row with Shift+Space, or the column with Ctrl+Space. Add Shift+↓Down or Shift+→Right to take several.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+= (the plus key) to insert, on both systems. With whole rows selected, new rows go in above at once; with only some cells selected, Excel asks which way to shift them.
3. Press Ctrl+- on Windows or Cmd+- on a Mac to delete what’s selected, by the same rule.

Ctrl+T on both systems turns a block of data into a table; press Enter or Return to accept the range Excel proposes. A table brings filter buttons with it, and pressing Tab in its last cell adds a new row. On a plain range, filters go on and off with Ctrl+Shift+L on Windows and Cmd+Shift+F on a Mac, and Alt+↓Down or Option+↓Down opens the filter list of the selected header cell.

Format and paste values

Job	Mac	Windows
Format Cells	Cmd+1	Ctrl+1
Currency, two decimal places	Ctrl+Shift+$	Ctrl+Shift+$
Percentage	Ctrl+Shift+%	Ctrl+Shift+%
Number, two decimals, thousands commas	Ctrl+Shift+!	Ctrl+Shift+!
Back to General	Ctrl+Shift+~	Ctrl+Shift+~
Bold	Cmd+B	Ctrl+B

The number formats use Ctrl on a Mac too, not Cmd.

Pasting values only, with no formulas and no formatting, takes Paste Special. Copy the cells, then:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+V on Windows, or Ctrl+Cmd+V on a Mac, to open Paste Special.
2. On Windows, press V for Values, then Enter. Each option has its own letter: T pastes only the formatting, W only the column widths, U values with their number formats. Microsoft’s Mac list gives the dialog no letter keys, so on a Mac move to Values with Tab and the arrow keys, then press Return.

When the Mac keys don’t match

Microsoft’s Mac list says many Windows Ctrl shortcuts also work with the Control key in Excel for Mac, “however, not all do.” There are two reasons: macOS already uses some of the keys, and the top row of a Mac keyboard controls brightness and volume unless you hold Fn. These are the ones that catch people:

Job	Mac	Windows
Edit the active cell	Ctrl+U,orFn+F2	F2
Lock a reference	Cmd+T,orFn+F4	F4
AutoSum	Cmd+Shift+T	Alt+=
Paste Special	Ctrl+Cmd+V	Ctrl+Alt+V
Filters on or off	Cmd+Shift+F	Ctrl+Shift+L
Find and replace	Cmd+Shift+H	Ctrl+H
Next or previous sheet	Option+→Rightor←Left	Ctrl+Page DownorPage Up
New line inside a cell	Option+Return	Alt+Enter

Three fixes cover the rest:

• The F-keys. Hold Fn (the Globe key on newer Mac keyboards) to use a top-row key as F1, F2 and so on. To make that the default, Apple’s function keys guide gives the setting: System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Function Keys, then “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys”. It changes every app on the Mac, not just Excel, and brightness and volume then need Fn.
• Ctrl+Space. On a Mac with more than one input language, Ctrl+Space switches the input source before Excel sees it, so the select-a-column key does nothing. Clear that shortcut in System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Input Sources, or give it other keys there.
• Missing keys. A MacBook has no Home, End, Page Up or Page Down: Fn+←Left is Home, Fn+→Right is End, Fn+↑Up and Fn+↓Down page up and down, and Ctrl+Fn+←Left goes to the top of the sheet. Compact keyboards move some of the same keys behind Fn, and 65% and 60% boards drop the F-row as well; keyboard sizes explained shows what each layout keeps and what it puts behind Fn.

Reach any command that has no shortcut

Most of the ribbon has no listed shortcut, but all of it can be reached from the keys.

On Windows, press Alt and letters appear on the ribbon’s tabs, which Microsoft calls Key Tips:

1. Press Alt (or F10).
2. Press a tab’s letter: H for Home, N for Insert, A for Data, W for View.
3. Press the letters that appear on the command. Alt, H, A, C centers the cell; Alt, H, B opens the borders; Alt, H, D, C deletes the column.
4. Press Esc to step back a level, or Alt to hide the letters.

Microsoft’s guide to using the keyboard with the ribbon says every ribbon command can be reached this way, “usually by pressing two to four keys.” When you don’t know where a command lives, Alt+Q jumps to the Search box at the top of the window (called Tell Me in some versions): type the command’s name, then pick it from the list with the arrow keys and Enter. The old pre-ribbon sequences still work too, such as Alt, E, S for Paste Special.

On a Mac, the same Microsoft guide says Key Tips need Excel version 16.89 or later and are off by default. To turn them on, go to Excel, Preferences, Accessibility, and under KeyTips choose an Activation keystroke; Option gives you the same key as Alt on a PC. Every Mac app also has a Help menu search: Cmd+Shift+? opens it, and typing a command’s name finds it in the menus.

To give a command a key of your own, on a Mac use System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, App Shortcuts, which works for any menu command in any app. On Windows, Microsoft suggests recording a macro for an action you repeat that has no shortcut, and giving the macro one.

In Excel for the web, Key Tips start with Alt+Windows logo key, and the browser keeps some keys for itself unless you turn on Override browser shortcuts, as Microsoft explains in controlling keyboard shortcuts in Excel for the web.

Learn them in this order

Reading a list doesn’t build muscle memory; using five keys at a time does. The Excel sheet numbers its twenty in this order, so print it and work down it:

1. Week one, move and select: jump to the edge, select to the edge, the whole row, the whole column, and edit the cell.
2. Week two, enter: fill down, the same entry in every selected cell, a new line in a cell, lock a reference, and AutoSum.
3. Week three, change the grid: insert, delete, Format Cells, Paste Special and filters.
4. Week four, the rest: a table, today’s date, the next sheet, show formulas, and find and replace.

When your hand goes for the mouse to do one of the week’s five, stop and press the keys instead, even when it’s slower the first few times.

If editing the text inside a cell still sends you to the mouse, learn the system’s own text-editing shortcuts that work in almost every app first. If you also work in Google Sheets, the moving and selecting keys carry over but several others don’t: paste values is Cmd+Shift+V or Ctrl+Shift+V there, and inserting rows is Cmd+Option+= or Ctrl+Alt+=. Its twenty are on the Google Sheets sheet, and the other app-by-app guides are in Shortcuts.