The Excel keyboard shortcuts to practise first
Nine shortcuts that do most of the work in a spreadsheet, in the order to learn them, with a drill for each, then the five that come next.
The people who are fast in Excel are not fast at typing formulas. They are fast at moving. They get to the cell, select the range and fill the column without touching the mouse. That comes from a few shortcuts pressed thousands of times. It does not come from a long list read once. Here are the nine to learn first, in the order they help most. Each one has a drill you can run on any spreadsheet. Five more follow, for when the first nine are easy.
Every combination below is written for a Windows keyboard. Microsoft says many Ctrl shortcuts also work with the Control key on a Mac. But not all of them do. Fill down is Ctrl+D or ⌘+D. To lock a reference, a Mac uses ⌘+T or F4. The arrows, Shift and F2 are the same keys.
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Down Arrow keys
Move the selection one cell.
Drill. Put the mouse out of reach. Fill a 3×3 block with numbers using only the arrows, Enter and Tab.
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Shift Down Shift + arrow
Grow the selection instead of moving it. The cell you started on stays inside.
Drill. From any cell, select exactly four cells down and three across, without the mouse.
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Ctrl Down Ctrl + arrow
Jump to the last filled cell in that direction — the edge of the data.
Drill. On a column of a hundred rows, get from the top to the bottom in one press. Then find the gap it stops at.
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Ctrl Shift Down Ctrl + Shift + arrow
Jump and select together: a whole column of data in one movement.
Drill. Select a column of data from its header to its last row, then press Ctrl+C.
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Ctrl Home Ctrl + Home
Back to A1 from anywhere.
Drill. Scroll to row 2000, then get home in one press.
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Ctrl D Ctrl + D
Fill the selection down from its top cell, moving relative references as it goes.
Drill. Write one formula at the top of a column, select down to the last row with Ctrl+Shift+Down, then Ctrl+D.
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F2 F2
Edit the selected cell in place, with the cursor at the end.
Drill. Fix a typo in a long formula without retyping it, and without the mouse.
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F4 F4
Cycle a reference through $A$1, A$1, $A1 and A1 while editing.
Drill. Write =B4*D3, then press F4 with the cursor on D3 until it reads $D$3.
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Ctrl Z Ctrl + Z
Undo. The one that makes the others safe to try.
Drill. Press Ctrl+D on the wrong column on purpose, then undo it.
Why this order
The first five move you around and select things. That is most of a spreadsheet session. You type a formula once and move it a hundred times. Ctrl+D comes sixth. It is the first shortcut that does work instead of moving, so it needs the selection keys first. F2 and F4 are for editing. They save you retyping, and retyping is where beginners lose most time and make most mistakes. Undo is last on the list and first in importance. Knowing you can put it back is what lets you try the other eight.
The five that come next
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Ctrl Enter Ctrl + Enter
Put what you typed into every selected cell at once. Select D2 to D6, type 100, Ctrl+Enter.
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Alt = Alt + =
AutoSum: a SUM of the numbers above, without typing the function.
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Ctrl ; Ctrl + ;
Today's date as a fixed value. Unlike TODAY(), it does not change tomorrow.
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Ctrl R Ctrl + R
Fill right, the sideways twin of Ctrl+D.
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Esc Esc
Abandon an edit and leave the cell exactly as it was. Cheaper than undo.
How to actually learn them
One at a time, for a day each. Pick the next shortcut on the list. For that day, refuse to do its job any other way. If your hand goes to the mouse, take it off and press the keys. A shortcut is learned by the hand, not by memory. The hand learns in about a day of real use. Nine shortcuts, nine days. After that you use the mouse for charts.
Two things make it stick. Say the keys out loud the first few times. "Control, shift, down" is easier to remember than a picture of three keys. And put the shortcut where you will see it while you work. Write the keys on a note and put the note on your screen.
Questions people ask
Which Excel shortcuts are used the most?
Copy, paste and undo, then the arrow combinations above. That is why this list starts there rather than with anything clever.
Do these work in Google Sheets?
All nine do, with the same keys. Sheets has more shortcuts of its own. But moving, selecting, filling, editing and undoing work the same way. So the days you spend on them are not wasted if you switch.
Why does Ctrl+Down sometimes stop early?
It stops on the last filled cell before an empty one. So a blank row in the middle of a column is where it leaves you. That is useful. It is the fastest way to find a gap that should not be there. From an empty cell it jumps to the next filled one instead.
You may prefer to be told when you press the wrong keys. The first module on this site has a lesson that watches the keys themselves. It moves the selection the way Excel would, and marks the press.