Excel keyboard shortcuts for moving around and selecting

In short: Ctrl+Arrow jumps to the edge of the data, Ctrl+Shift+Arrow selects everything up to that edge, and Ctrl+A selects the table you are in. On a Mac, the jumps use ⌘ instead of Ctrl.

Try it now

Click into the practice sheet and use your keyboard as you would in Excel. The sheet counts your key presses, and the task only counts as solved if you reach the goal within the allowed number. You need a physical keyboard for these exercises, so they do not work on a phone.

Task Jump from B2 to the last revenue value in the list with a single key press.

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Day	Revenue $	Orders
2	Mar 1	1200	12
3	Mar 2	950	9
4	Mar 3	1430	15
5	Mar 4	870	8
6	Mar 5	1610	17
7	Mar 6	990	10
8	Mar 7	1340	14
9	Mar 8	1120	11
10	Mar 9	760	7
11	Mar 10	1580	16
12	Mar 11	1270	13
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Excel shortcuts list: navigating and selecting

Every shortcut below comes from Microsoft's own "Keyboard shortcuts in Excel" reference. The Mac column shows what Microsoft lists for Excel for Mac, which mixes Command (⌘) and Control (Ctrl).

Task	Windows	Mac
Jump to the edge of the data	Ctrl+Arrow key	⌘+Arrow key
Select to the last filled cell	Ctrl+Shift+Arrow key	⌘+Shift+Arrow key
Extend the selection by one cell	Shift+Arrow key	Shift+Arrow key
Go to the start of the sheet (A1)	Ctrl+Home	Ctrl+Home
Go to the last used cell	Ctrl+End	Ctrl+End
Go to the start of the row	Home	Home (MacBook: Fn+Left Arrow)
Select the entire column	Ctrl+Spacebar	Ctrl+Spacebar
Select the entire row	Shift+Spacebar	Shift+Spacebar
Select the current region, press again for the whole sheet	Ctrl+A	⌘+A
Select to the last used cell	Ctrl+Shift+End	Ctrl+Shift+End
Next worksheet	Ctrl+Page Down	Ctrl+Page Down or Option+Right Arrow

And the everyday shortcuts most people want on the same cheat sheet:

Task	Windows	Mac
Copy, paste	Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V	⌘+C, ⌘+V
Undo, redo	Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y	⌘+Z, ⌘+Y
Edit the active cell	F2	F2
Format Cells dialog	Ctrl+1	⌘+1
Turn filters on or off	Ctrl+Shift+L	⌘+Shift+F or Ctrl+Shift+L
Enter today's date as a fixed value	Ctrl+;	Ctrl+;
Create a table	Ctrl+T or Ctrl+L	⌘+T

Filling down, locking references with F4 and AutoSum have their own lesson, linked at the end of this page.

How Ctrl+Arrow decides where to stop

If the active cell has data and so does the next one, Ctrl+Down Arrow runs down the column and stops at the last filled cell before an empty one. If the next cell is empty, Excel skips ahead to the next cell that has data. With nothing left in that direction, you end up at the edge of the worksheet.

That makes it a quick gap detector. If Ctrl+Down stops halfway through a list you thought was complete, there is a blank cell right below. Better to find it now than after a sort has split your data.

Select to the end of a column: Ctrl+Shift+Arrow

Adding Shift turns any movement into a selection. So Ctrl+Shift+Down Arrow selects from the active cell down to the last filled cell, no matter how long the column is. Follow it with Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow and the selection grows across every column to the right edge of the data.

Task You want to format the overtime column. Select every value from C2 to the end of the list with a single shortcut.

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Name	Hours	Overtime
2	Jana Weber	38.5	2
3	Murat Kaya	40	0
4	Lena Hoffmann	22	1
5	Tom Schulz	39.5	4
6	Sara Klein	31	0
7	Ali Demir	40	3
8	Mia Wagner	16	0
9	Paul Becker	35.5	2
10	Eva Richter	40	1
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For small adjustments, Shift+Arrow adds one cell per press.

Select a column, a row or the whole table

Ctrl+Spacebar selects the entire column of the active cell, and Shift+Spacebar the entire row. Handy right before you format, hide or delete a column.

Ctrl+A works in steps. Inside a block of data, the first press selects the current region: all cells connected to the active cell without a blank row or column in between. Press it again and you get the whole sheet. For copying a table or adding a filter, the first press is usually exactly what you want.

Task You want to copy the orders. From C5, select the whole table with a single shortcut, but not the entire sheet.

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
1	Order no.	City	Item	Amount $
2	24017	Leipzig	Printer paper	412.8
3	24018	Berlin	Binder	96.5
4	24019	Hamburg	Office chair	1280
5	24020	Dresden	Highlighter	64.9
6	24021	Berlin	Toner	375
7	24022	Leipzig	Hole punch	219.9
8	24023	Hamburg	Sticky notes	88
9	24024	Berlin	Stapler	540.2
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Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End

Ctrl+Home always takes you to A1. Ctrl+End goes to the last used cell, meaning the lowest used row in the rightmost used column. Hold Shift as well to select everything in between.

If Ctrl+End lands far below your data, cells down there once held content or formatting. Delete the extra rows and columns and save the file to reset it.

Excel shortcuts on a Mac

In Excel for Mac, Command (⌘) usually takes the place of Ctrl: ⌘+Arrow jumps, ⌘+Shift+Arrow selects and ⌘+A selects the current region. A few shortcuts use the Control key instead, such as Ctrl+Spacebar for a column or Ctrl+Home. MacBooks have no Home or End key, so Microsoft lists Fn+Left Arrow for Home, Ctrl+Fn+Left Arrow for the start of the sheet and Ctrl+Fn+Right Arrow for the last used cell. If a function key such as F2 does nothing, hold Fn as well.

Our practice sheet treats ⌘ and Ctrl the same, so practice with whatever your fingers already know.

Shortcuts in German Excel

German keyboards and German guides use different key names, which helps when you follow a German tutorial or work with German colleagues:

English	German
Ctrl	Strg
Shift	Umschalt
Home, End	Pos1, Ende
Spacebar	Leertaste
Page Up, Page Down	Bild auf, Bild ab

Most combinations are identical, but not all. Microsoft notes that its list refers to the US keyboard layout, so shortcuts with punctuation move around on other layouts. And some commands were localized: Fill Down is Ctrl+D in English Excel but Strg+U in German Excel for Windows.

Which Excel versions support these shortcuts?

The navigation and selection shortcuts have been part of Excel for Windows for many versions, so they work in Excel 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024 and Microsoft 365 alike. Excel for Mac has its own variants, shown above. Excel for the web gets a separate list from Microsoft because it runs in a browser, and browser shortcuts can conflict with Excel's. Ctrl+T, for example, opens a new browser tab.

Frequently asked questions