Advanced Excel Shortcuts for Windows and Mac: A Power-User Cheat Sheet

The basics, copy, paste, save, undo, take a week to learn and repay you every day. The advanced shortcuts take longer to learn and repay you in bursts: a Flash Fill that does ten minutes of text cleaning in one keystroke, a trace of precedents that finds a broken link in a second. This sheet collects the ones worth the effort, with the Windows and Mac keys side by side, and is honest about the commands that have no shortcut at all.

Quick answer: The advanced shortcuts that pay back fastest on a Mac are ⌃E (Flash Fill), ⌃⇧Return (array formula), ⌃[ and ⌃] (select precedents and dependents), ⌃⇧U (expand the formula bar), ⇧⌥→ (group) and ⌘Y (repeat the last action). If you have not learned the basic 50 yet, start with our essential shortcuts cheat sheet.

Formula power moves

A few notes on the ones people find odd.

• Array formulas. In current versions of Microsoft 365, formulas spill into neighbouring cells automatically, so ⌃⇧Return is mainly for older versions or for formulas you want to enter explicitly as arrays.

• Fill the selection. Select a range, type a value or formula, and press ⌃Return. Every selected cell gets the entry, with relative references adjusting. It is faster than typing once and filling down.

• Precedents and dependents. ⌃[ jumps to the cells a formula refers to, and ⌃] jumps to the cells that rely on the current one. They are the quickest way to audit a model, and our guide to keyboard-only financial modelling shows them in a real workflow.

• Expand the formula bar. Long nested formulas are unreadable on one line. ⌃⇧U opens the bar to several lines, and you can press it again to collapse it.

• Function arguments. With the cursor inside a function name, ⌃A opens a dialog showing each argument with a description, handy for functions you rarely use.

For the absolute reference toggle, see the F4 and absolute reference guide, which also explains why the key sometimes appears to do nothing, and why F4 does not work on some Macs.

Data and cleaning

Flash Fill

Flash Fill recognises a pattern from one or two examples and fills the rest of the column. Type the first result next to your data, for example the first name from a full name, press ⌃E, and Excel fills the remaining rows. It is ideal for splitting, combining and reformatting text. Check the results, because it infers the pattern and can guess wrong on irregular data.

Selecting only what you can see

Before you copy a filtered list, press ⇧⌘* so that hidden rows are not included. This is one of the commonest causes of pasting more data than you meant to. Our Go To Special guide explains this and the other selections: blanks, formulas and constants.

Repeat the last action

⌘Y repeats whatever you just did, such as applying a fill colour or inserting a row, to a new selection. It doubles as redo when there is nothing to repeat, and the undo and redo guide explains the difference.

Commands with no default shortcut

The most useful advanced commands are often the ones without a key, and it is better to know that than to waste time hunting for one.

To create your own, choose Tools > Customize Keyboard, find the command and assign a key. Our guides on freeze panes, merging cells and pivot table shortcuts explain the options, and the Mac Excel Shortcuts app comes with several of these pre-mapped if you would rather not set them up yourself.

Pivot tables and filters from the keyboard

Pivot tables have the thinnest keyboard coverage of any major Excel feature, so a few keys go a long way: group with ⇧⌥→, ungroup with ⇧⌥←, filter with ⌃⇧L. The complete guide to pivot tables in Excel for Mac walks through the whole workflow, and AutoFilter shortcuts on Mac covers the filter drop-downs.

Check these when a shortcut does nothing

• fn key. On a MacBook, F-key shortcuts need fn unless you changed the setting.

• macOS collisions. ⌃Space and ⌃ with arrow keys can be claimed by macOS for input sources and Mission Control. Check System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts.

• Focus. The shortcut may be going to a dialog or the formula bar rather than the sheet. Press Esc and click a cell.

• Version. Newer features, including Flash Fill behaviour and dynamic arrays, depend on your Excel version.

If none of that helps, work through why Excel keyboard shortcuts do not work on a Mac.

Print this as a PDF

Press ⌘P and use the PDF menu in the bottom left to save this page as a PDF. If it spills onto too many pages, print only the tables you want, or build your own one-page sheet in Excel with our guide to fitting a sheet on one page.

Common mistakes

• Learning advanced shortcuts before the basics. Master the essential 50 first.

• Trusting Flash Fill blindly. Always scan the output.

• Copying filtered data without selecting visible cells.

• Assuming every command has a shortcut. Several do not.

• Not checking macOS shortcut collisions.

Frequently asked questions

What is Flash Fill's shortcut on Mac?

⌃E, after you type an example of the result next to your data.

How do I trace precedents from the keyboard?

Press ⌃[ on a Mac to select the cells that the active formula refers to.

Why does ⌃Space not select a column?

macOS may use it for switching input sources. Change that shortcut in System Settings.

Does Excel for Mac have all the advanced shortcuts of Windows?

Most, with different modifier keys. Some commands have no shortcut on either platform.

How do I create my own shortcut?

Use Tools > Customize Keyboard in Excel for Mac and assign a key to a command.

Related guides

• 50 essential Excel shortcuts for Windows and Mac

• Mac Excel shortcut cheat sheet

• Hidden Mac Excel shortcuts

• Complete guide to pivot tables in Excel for Mac