How to Make Your Own Excel Shortcut Cheat Sheet and Save It as a One-Page PDF on Mac
A printed list of 500 shortcuts looks impressive and gets ignored. A one-page sheet with the 25 you actually use, or are trying to learn, gets used. It takes about twenty minutes to build in Excel, and saving it as a PDF means you can print it, keep it on your phone or give it to a colleague. This guide shows how, including the exact page settings for a clean single page.
Quick answer: List your shortcuts in four columns (action, Mac keys, Windows keys, learned), set the page to Landscape and Width: 1 page, Height: 1 page under Page Layout > Scale to Fit, then press ⇧⌘S, choose PDF and save. Print it, and keep it beside your keyboard.
Why a personal sheet works better
Generic lists fail for a simple reason: most of the shortcuts in them are ones you will never use. A personal sheet is short enough to read in ten seconds, it contains only things you do, and the act of building it fixes some of them in your memory. It also changes over time. When a shortcut becomes automatic you delete it, and add another.
If you want a ready-made source to pick from, our 50 essential shortcuts cheat sheet and advanced shortcuts cheat sheet list the Windows and Mac keys for each one.
Step 1: Choose what goes on it
Spend a week noticing when you reach for the mouse to do something you do often. Each time, jot down the action. At the end of the week you will have a list of 20 to 30 actions, and those are the ones worth learning, because you already do them. Then look up the shortcut for each in a reference, and add it to the sheet.
| Action | Mac | Windows | Learned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Save | ⌘S | Ctrl+S | |
| Undo | ⌘Z | Ctrl+Z | |
| Paste Special | ⌃⌘V | Ctrl+Alt+V | |
| Edit the active cell | ⌃U | F2 | |
| Jump to the edge of the data | ⌘ + arrow key | Ctrl+Arrow | |
| Select to the edge of the data | ⇧⌘ + arrow key | Ctrl+Shift+Arrow | |
| Fill down | ⌘D | Ctrl+D | |
| Insert today's date | ⌃; | Ctrl+; | |
| Turn filters on or off | ⌃⇧L | Ctrl+Shift+L | |
| Toggle absolute reference | ⌘T | F4 | |
| AutoSum | ⇧⌘T | Alt+= | |
| Go To | ⌃G | Ctrl+G | |
| Format Cells | ⌘1 | Ctrl+1 | |
| Next sheet | ⌥→ | Ctrl+Page Down | |
| Print or save as PDF | ⌘P | Ctrl+P |
Step 2: Lay it out in Excel
Open a new workbook with ⌘N and rename the sheet Cheat Sheet.
In row 1 type the headings: Action, Mac, Windows, Learned.
Fill in your shortcuts, one per row, starting with the starter set above if you like.
Select the headings and apply bold and a fill colour with the Home tab.
Widen the columns by double-clicking the border of each column header.
Add borders to the table and use a larger font, 11 or 12 points.
Group related rows with a light fill colour, for example navigation in blue and formulas in green.
The Learned column is a small habit-builder. Put a tick in it once a shortcut becomes automatic. A formula such as =COUNTIF(D2:D40, "✓") at the bottom shows how many you have mastered, which is more motivating than it sounds.
If you end up with more than about 30 rows, split the list into two blocks side by side: Action, Mac and Windows in columns A to C, and the second block in columns E to G. That uses the width of a landscape page and keeps it to one sheet.
Step 3: Set up the page
This is the step that gives you a clean PDF rather than three pages of spillover. The table below lists the settings to use.
| Setting | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Orientation | Landscape | Two blocks of columns sit side by side |
| Scale to Fit | Width: 1 page, Height: 1 page | A short sheet is allowed to fill exactly one page |
| Margins | Narrow | Gives the text more room, so less shrinking |
| Print area | Set to the table only | Stops notes and scratch cells appearing |
| Font size | 11 to 12 points | Readable at arm's length |
| Header | Title and date | You can see how old your copy is |
| Gridlines | Off, with borders on the table | Cleaner than the default grid |
To apply them, open the Page Layout tab, choose Orientation > Landscape and Margins > Narrow, and in Scale to Fit set both Width and Height to 1 page. Setting the height to one page is normally a bad idea, because it can shrink a long table until it is unreadable, but for a deliberately short sheet it is exactly right. The full explanation of those settings, and when not to use them, is in our guide to fitting an Excel sheet on one page as a PDF.
Then set a print area so that only the table is exported. Select the table, choose Page Layout > Print Area > Set Print Area. Finally add a header with the title and the date, using Page Layout and the Page Setup dialog, so you can tell later which version you are holding.
Step 4: Preview, then save as a PDF
Open View > Page Break Preview to confirm everything is inside the white area. Then press ⇧⌘S, choose PDF from the File Format menu, choose the active sheet, and save. Our guide to saving Excel as a PDF on a Mac explains the options, and the Excel to PDF keyboard shortcuts list the keys for the whole route.
Open the PDF in Preview and check it. Are all the rows there? Is the text large enough to read at arm's length? If not, go back and reduce the number of rows or increase the margins. If the sheet came out cut off or with blank pages, our troubleshooting guide for cut-off columns and blank pages will find the cause.
Step 5: Put it where you will see it
A cheat sheet only helps if it is in front of you at the moment you reach for the mouse.
Print it and keep it beside your keyboard or taped to the monitor stand.
Press Space in Finder. Select the PDF and press the space bar to open Quick Look instantly, without launching an app.
Send it to your phone with AirDrop, so you have it in meetings.
Share it with a team as a PDF, and keep the Excel file as the editable source.
Date the file name, for example Excel-shortcuts-2026-10, so older copies are obvious.
Step 6: Keep it alive
Review the sheet monthly. Delete the shortcuts that are now automatic, and add three new ones from the list of things you still do with the mouse. After a few months, the sheet will look nothing like the one you started with, and your daily work will be noticeably faster.
If you find the same commands keep appearing on your list because Excel for Mac has no shortcut for them, such as freeze panes or merging cells, that is useful information too.
Common mistakes
Starting with 100 shortcuts. Twenty-five is plenty.
Skipping the page setup, and printing three pages with half the table on page two.
Tiny fonts so that the sheet is unreadable where you need it.
Never updating it. A sheet that never changes stops being used.
Deleting the Excel source after exporting the PDF.
Frequently asked questions
How many shortcuts should be on a cheat sheet?
Between 20 and 30 for a one-page sheet. More than that and it becomes a reference to look things up in rather than a prompt.
Can I make the cheat sheet in Numbers or Pages instead?
Yes. Both can export to PDF with the same idea. Excel is convenient because you can sort the list and count the ones you have learned.
Should I include the Windows keys?
If you move between Windows and Mac, yes. If you only use a Mac, leave them out and save the space.
What is the best way to learn the shortcuts on the sheet?
Use each one on purpose, every time, for a week, and then tick it off. Do not try to learn the whole sheet at once.