Microsoft Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

Microsoft Excel first shipped in 1985 for the Macintosh, then 1987 for Windows. By 2026 it dominates the spreadsheet market with over 750 million users worldwide and powers most financial models, data analyses, dashboards, and small-business accounting. Excel's keyboard shortcuts are designed around the spreadsheet grid: navigation moves around cells, formulas live in the formula bar, and Ctrl+1 always opens Format Cells. This reference card covers the most-used 100+ shortcuts across 8 functional areas: Common commands, Data entry & editing, Selection & navigation, Formulas, Formatting, Rows & columns, Worksheets & workbooks, PivotTables & data tools. All entries are transcribed from Microsoft's official Excel documentation (Windows + Mac variants side-by-side). How to use - Pick your platform (Windows / macOS) at the top — keys change immediately. Default is detected from User-Agent and saved to localStorage. - Type any word in the search box (e.g. "pivot", "formula", "border") to filter. Search matches both feature names and keys on both platforms. - Click any row's Copy button to grab the current platform's key string. - Export PNG (2400×1140 landscape) for a printable wallpaper; PDF for a single A4 landscape page. Tips - Ctrl+1 is the universal "open format dialog" — works on any cell, range, chart, or pivot table. The most useful shortcut after Ctrl+S. - F4 (or Cmd+T on Mac) toggles $A$1 / $A1 / A$1 / A1 — essential for absolute vs relative references in formulas. - Ctrl+Shift+L toggles AutoFilter on the active table. Ctrl+T creates a table from any selection. These two together make data analysis fast. - Ctrl+; inserts today's date as a value; Ctrl+Shift+; inserts the current time. Use Ctrl+Shift+# for date formatting on existing cells. Why this separate from vscode-shortcuts? Excel has its own shortcut ecosystem tied to cells, formulas, and sheets. Mixing it with IDE shortcuts would dilute the tool. This separation keeps each printable as one page.