20 Excel Mac Shortcuts You Need To Know

Are you a Mac user who spends countless hours working with Excel? Do you often find yourself wishing for a way to streamline your workflow and save time? Look no further!

In this article, I’ll go through essential Excel Mac shortcuts that will revolutionize the way you work. From formatting to navigation, these shortcuts cover all aspects of Excel. These are perfect for both beginners and experts.

Remember, practice makes perfect – so don’t be afraid to incorporate these shortcuts into your daily routine. As you become more comfortable using them, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without them!

So, prepare to supercharge your productivity and take your Excel skills to the next level! #WorkSmarterNotHarder

The Essentials: Basic Excel Mac Shortcuts

In this section, you will learn about Excel Mac shortcuts to help you navigate, select, edit, and format efficiently.

Let’s dive into the basics of these essential shortcuts.

Navigation Shortcuts

With these shortcuts, you can easily explore your spreadsheet and locate specific cells without wasting time scrolling with the mouse. You can find the Windows navigation shortcuts here.

• Jump to the beginning of a row: ⌘ + Left Arrow
• Jump to the end of a row: ⌘ + Right Arrow
• Jump to the top of a column: ⌘ + Up Arrow
• Jump to the bottom of a column: ⌘ + Down Arrow

Selection Shortcuts

These shortcuts will help you quickly highlight the data you need to work with, whether it’s for copying, deleting, or applying formatting.

• Select an entire row: Shift + Space to select the entire row of the active cell.
• Select an entire column: Control + Space to select the entire column of the active cell.

Inserting And Deleting Rows And Columns Shortcuts

These editing shortcuts enable you to efficiently add or remove rows and columns in your spreadsheet.

• Insert a new row or column: ⌘ + Shift + Plus (+) to insert a new row or column.
• Delete a row or column: Ctrl + Minus (–) after selecting an entire row or column.

Formatting Shortcuts

These formatting shortcuts will help you emphasize key information and give your spreadsheet a professional, polished look.

• Apply bold formatting: ⌘ + B
• Apply italic formatting: ⌘ + I
• Apply underline formatting: ⌘ + U

When you are working with large amounts of data, it’s best to apply more than these basic shortcuts. Check out the post on formatting best practices to take your spreadsheets to the next level.

Working with Formulas

Next up are some useful shortcuts that can help you manage and audit formulas more efficiently. Here’s a list of some essential shortcuts related to formulas:

Inserting Formulas

• Summing a range of cells: To quickly sum up a range of cells, select the cell where you want the total to appear, and then press ⌘ + Shift + T. Excel will automatically insert the SUM formula and calculate the total for you.
• Entering formulas: Start by selecting the cell where you want to insert the formula. Press = followed by the formula you want to enter. For example, to add the values in cells A1 and B1, you would type =A1+B1 and hit Enter. Excel will calculate the result and display it in the selected cell.
• Using the Formula Builder: If you’re not sure which formula to use or how to structure it, you can access the Formula Builder by pressing Shift + F3. This will bring up a list of available functions, and you can select one based on your needs.

Auditing Formulas

• Trace precedents and dependents: To understand the relationships between cells in your worksheet, it can be helpful to trace the precedents (cells that are referenced by a formula in the selected cell) or dependents (cells that contain formulas referencing the selected cell) of a cell. To do this, select the cell you want to audit and press Control + [ (for precedents) or Control + Shift +] (for dependents).
• Find errors in formulas: If your formula generates an error message, it can sometimes be difficult to identify the source of the problem. To help with this, press Control + ` to display formula errors in a more readable format that shows cell references instead of values.

Data Management

Now we’ll go through some useful Excel Mac shortcuts to help you manage your data efficiently.

Sorting and Filtering

Sorting and filtering your data can help you quickly organize and analyze it. Here are some handy shortcuts to make these tasks easier:

• Apply Filters: Select the data range (include the column headers) and press ⌘ + Shift + F
• Unfortunately, there’s no specific shortcut for sorting ascending or descending on a Mac. You can then use your mouse to click on the filter arrows and select “Sort Ascending” or “Sort Descending.”

Customizing Tables

Customizing your tables can make them visually appealing and easier to read. Use the following shortcuts to achieve this:

• Apply table style: Select the data range (include column headers) and press ⌘ + T
• Add or remove rows/columns: combine with the inserting and deleting rows shortcuts above to add and remove rows/columns

These shortcuts allow you to quickly apply a professional-looking style to your table or add/remove columns as needed. For example, if you’ve created a table to track your monthly expenses, you can apply a table style to make the data visually appealing and easy to read.

Visualizing Data

In this section, I will discuss a few essential shortcuts that will help you create charts.

Creating Charts

• Create a chart from a selection: Instead of taking multiple clicks to insert a chart, you can quickly create one by selecting your data and pressing fn + Option + F1. This shortcut will automatically generate a default chart within the same worksheet.

You’ll need to use the options in the Chart Design tab on the Excel Ribbon to edit the chart type or format. Unfortunately, there’s no keyboard shortcut for this process!

• Add secondary axis: When visualizing data with different units or scales, adding a secondary axis to your chart is helpful. Select the series you want to move to the secondary axis, then press Control + 1 to open the “Format Data Series” pane. From there, choose the “Secondary Axis” option.

While not as easy on the Excel Mac version, you can still efficiently duplicate chart formats quickly.

Customizing Excel Mac Shortcuts For You

Customizing Shortcuts

As an Excel Mac user, not all is lost. You can customize your keyboard shortcuts to your own liking. Let’s dive into how you can customize your shortcuts in Excel Mac.

You need to go to “Tools” > “Customize Keyboard.” Once you have the “Customize Keyboard” window opened, you can explore the list of available commands and their current shortcuts.

To assign a shortcut to your desired command, follow these steps:

1. Select a category from the list, such as “File” or “Edit”.
2. Choose a specific command that you want to assign a shortcut to.
3. Click in the “Press new keyboard shortcut” field and press the key combination you want to use.
4. Check if the new shortcut is currently assigned to another command. If it is, you might want to choose a different combination.
5. Click “Add” to save your new keyboard shortcut.

This feature is available in Excel for Mac version 16.18 and later. To make sure you’re using the right version, go to “Help” > “Check for Updates” and update if needed. You can access more information on customizing your keyboard shortcuts in the Microsoft Support article.

Frequently Asked Questions