Google Sheets and Excel shortcuts (cheat sheet)

I have been working as an analyst and in operations leadership roles for 5+ years.

It goes without saying that using Excel took up a very significant part of my daily job anywhere I worked.

I collected and hand-selected the top tricks and shortcuts that literally saved long hours for me.

You can see them below:

How to read the tables

Ctrl+Shift+V       hold Ctrl and Shift, then tap V
Ctrl+Alt+V, V      press Ctrl+Alt+V, let go, then press V
Arrow              any of the four arrow keys
Alt+↓ / Alt+↑      two shortcuts: next / previous

1. Sheets (Windows): Google Sheets in a browser on Windows.
2. Sheets (Mac): Google Sheets in a browser on a Mac. Ctrl here really means the Control key, not Cmd.
3. Excel (Windows): the Excel desktop app on Windows.
4. Excel (Mac): the Excel desktop app on a Mac. On a MacBook you may need Fn for the F keys and for Home/End.

Every shortcut below was checked against Google's and Microsoft's own shortcut pages. There are 25, grouped the way you actually work: move, select, change, make it look right.

1. Navigate: stop scrolling

You have 3,000 rows of orders and need the last one. Scrolling takes 20 seconds. Ctrl+↓ takes none.

Pro tip: Ctrl+Arrow stops at the first empty cell. If it lands in the middle of your data, you have a gap. Press it again to jump over it, and maybe fix the gap.

2. Select: grab the whole block

The same arrows, plus Shift, select everything on the way.

Pro tip: Ctrl+Shift+↓ then Ctrl+Shift+→ selects a whole table from its top-left corner, however big it is. Look at the bottom-right of the screen: the sum and count of the selection are already there.

3. Edit: the ones that pay the rent

Paste values only is the star of this group. You copy a column of formulas, paste it as plain numbers, and nothing breaks when you delete the source.

Pro tip: Ctrl+Enter fills every selected cell at once. Select 50 cells, type Pending, press Ctrl+Enter: 50 cells say Pending. It works with formulas too, and the references adjust.

4. Format: numbers that look like money

Three number formats cover most of what you report: money, percentages and big numbers with commas.

Excel's help page writes these as Ctrl+Shift+$, Ctrl+Shift+%, Ctrl+Shift+! and Ctrl+Shift+&. On a US keyboard those are the same keys as 4, 5, 1 and 7. One difference: Excel's percent format has no decimals (12%), Google Sheets usually shows two (12.00%).

5. Formulas: lock it and check it

Press F4 while your cursor is on a reference in a formula. It cycles A1 → $A$1 → A$1 → $A1 → A1. That's the $ locking from the White Belt course, without typing a single dollar sign.

Pro tip: before you send a sheet to your boss, press Ctrl+~ (Excel: Ctrl+` ). Every formula shows up as text. Typed numbers where a formula should be are easy to spot. Press it again to switch back.

6. Rows and columns: add and remove in one move

* Select the rows or columns first with Shift+Space or Ctrl+Space. In Excel, Ctrl+Shift+= and Ctrl+- open a small box when only a cell is selected; with whole rows selected they act straight away.

7. Data: find, fix and filter

Pro tip: the filter menu shortcut only works when the filter is already on and you're on a header cell. In Excel, Ctrl+Shift+L (Mac: Cmd+Shift+F) turns the filter on. Google Sheets has no documented key for it: use Data → Create a filter.

Excel-only bonus: Alt+= (Mac: Cmd+Shift+T) writes a SUM for you, Ctrl+1 (Mac: Cmd+1) opens Format Cells, and Alt+Enter (Mac: Option+Return) starts a new line inside a cell.

Common mistakes

• Assuming Mac = Cmd everywhere. Select column is Ctrl+Space on a Mac too, and in Google Sheets the number formats stay Ctrl+Shift+4, 5 and 1. Excel for Mac uses Ctrl for dates and formats.
• Pressing Enter to edit in Excel. In Google Sheets, Enter opens the cell for editing (F2 works too). In Excel, Enter just moves you down a cell: use F2.
• Expecting Ctrl+Shift+V in every Excel. Newer Microsoft 365 versions have it, older ones don't. The route that works everywhere is Paste Special: Ctrl+Alt+V, then V, then Enter.
• F keys that do nothing on a laptop. On many laptops F4 changes the volume or the brightness. Hold Fn (Fn+F4).
• Different keyboard layouts. Google notes that the date shortcuts differ in some countries (Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal use Ctrl+Shift+D). If a symbol key doesn't work, check your layout.

FAQ

How do I see every shortcut in Google Sheets? Press Ctrl+/ (Mac: Cmd+/). A list of the common shortcuts opens right inside the sheet.

Are Google Sheets and Excel shortcuts the same? On Windows, 18 of the 25 above use the same keys (Ctrl+~ and Ctrl+` are one key). The ones that differ: editing a cell, paste values, switching tabs, inserting and deleting rows, tables and the filter menu. On a Mac only 11 match, so the Mac columns are worth a second look.

Why doesn't F4 lock my reference? Your cursor must be inside the formula, on or right after the reference. On a Mac or a laptop try Fn+F4; in Excel for Mac Cmd+T does the same.

What's the fastest way to paste values in Excel? Ctrl+Alt+V, V, Enter works in every recent Windows Excel. Microsoft 365 has been adding Ctrl+Shift+V for paste values too, so try it: if it works in your version, use it.

Keep going

• Practise F4 on real formulas in the free White Belt course: the $ locking lesson, with instant feedback.
• Next read: Every spreadsheet error and how to fix it, and The FILTER function in Google Sheets.