Using Navigation Keyboard Shortcuts
This article and accompanying video describe some of the more common navigation keyboard shortcuts in Excel and other applications. These are shortcuts you absolutely need to learn and master to be efficient, not just in Excel, but in general, as they work in most applications. Navigating through folders, files, and applications is something everyone does, and if you can learn to do it efficiently, you can save a tremendous amount of time and save brainpower! We encourage you to learn the shortcuts below, and tinker around with others. You never know what shortcuts you might have been missing!
General navigation keyboard shortcuts in Excel
- Shift+Arrow – Select adjacent cells (characters when editing text*)
- Ctrl+Arrow – jump to end of adjacent cells (words when editing text*)
- Ctrl+Shift+Arrow – Select to end of adjacent cells (words when editing text*)
- Ctrl+Home / Ctrl+End – Jump to first column/first row or last column/last row of data (beginning/end of document/paragraph when editing text*)
- Ctrl+PageUp / Ctrl+PageDown – Go to previous or next tab/sheet in Excel, previous/next page in Word, previous/next slide in PowerPoint, previous/next tab in some web browsers, etc.
- Ctrl+Space – Select entire column(s) for selected range
- Shift+Space – Select entire row(s) for selected range
- F2 – Put cursor within cell/formula bar to edit value/formula
- F4 – Toggle absolute/relative cell references while editing a formula
- Tab – Moves to the right/next cell, fills in suggested formula/range names (inserts tab break in some text editors, jumps to next form element in forms)
- Alt – Activates the ribbon or other menus; press displayed key(s) to navigate further
*Editing text means anywhere you are typing out text, such as in the formula bar, within a cell, in a Word document, in an email message, in a web form, etc.
Using Shortcuts With the XLEV8 Add-in Suite
The XLEV8 Add-in Suite includes the ability to quickly and easily set, unset, and update keyboard shortcuts to any of the macros included in the add-ins, helping you save even more time than just using the standard, built-in keyboard shortcuts. Many of the macros (especially in Excel) build on the navigation shortcuts above, and some (such as Select To Bottom and Select To Right) are demonstrated in the video below. Even for macros you haven’t set keyboard shortcuts for, you can still run them typing just a couple of keys using the search macros box. Learn more on the XLEV8 Add-in Suite page, and see some of the popular macros in action in this article.
Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook Keyboard Shortcuts – Printable Lists
Use the lists in the files below to help you learn keyboard shortcuts that are natively available in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. The lists on each sheet are categorized (so you can sort or filter) and print-friendly, so post them at your desk to help you learn them. Just make sure to note if you override any of them if you assign shortcuts to any macros!
Example Files
Excel Navigation Keyboard Shortcuts Example
Excel Navigation Keyboard Shortcuts Video
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