In this worksheet, we have several thousand rows of data. Let me show you some shortcuts that will help you move around this data quickly. Every Excel worksheet has an active cell, and you’ll see the address of the active cell displayed in the name box, to the left of the formula bar. If you want to scroll the active cell into focus, you can use the shortcut Control + Backspace on Windows, or Command + Delete on the Mac. You can also use the name box to go to a specific location, by typing a reference and pressing enter. I can type things like A1000, F1, and even things like E:F, which selects the columns E and F completely. You can also display the GoTo dialog box with Control + G on both Mac and Windows. The shortcut for going back to the first cell in a worksheet is Control + Home on Windows, and Fn + Control + left arrow on a Mac. To get to the last used cell in a worksheet, use Control + End, and on Macs without an End key, use Fn + Control + right arrow. This cell represents the bottom right corner of the used worksheet area. To rapidly move through data, you can use Control + arrow keys on both platforms. When you’re working with larger sets of data, this is far faster than scrolling. For example, control + down arrow moves the cursor straight down through the data, stopping at the last non-empty cell. Control + right arrow across the data to the right, control + up arrow moves the cursor back to the top, and control + left arrow moves back to A1. On a Mac, you can use Command + arrow keys if you prefer. To scroll up and down, screen by screen, use the Page Down and Page Up keys. On a Mac without these keys, use Function with the up and down arrows keys. To scroll right to left by one screen, use Alt + Page Up and Page down on Windows. On a Mac, use Option with Page up and page down if you have those keys. Otherwise, use Function + Option + up and down arrows. You can use the Home key on Windows to go to the beginning of any row. On Macs without a Home key, use Function + left arrow.
Dave Bruns
Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.