Keyboard shortcuts

Moving around and selecting in a worksheet with a lot of data can feel laborious and time-consuming. Fortunately, there are smart keyboard shortcuts that make it easier. Being able to navigate tables efficiently is important, for example, when copying, writing functions and when finding and replacing. With the following keyboard shortcuts you can quickly select a column, a row or a table:

Ctrl+arrow key: activates the last non-empty cell in the direction of the arrow

Shift+arrow key: selects one cell in the direction of the arrow

Ctrl+Shift+arrow key: selects all cells between the cell where you were and the last non-empty cell in that direction

What is efficient in small tables is laborious in large tables

The following way of moving to the last cell in a list is efficient if the list is short but laborious if the list is long:

• Scroll down and finally click the last cell with the mouse.

The following way of selecting a table is efficient if the table is small but laborious if the table is large.

• Click the cell in the top left corner, hold down the mouse button and drag the mouse downwards and to the right until the whole table is selected.

Moving around and selecting is much faster with keyboard shortcuts

I do not use very many keyboard shortcuts in Excel. It is rarely the speed of my commands that limits my efficiency in Excel. But the following keyboard shortcuts for moving around and selecting in worksheets are ones I use very often. They make my everyday work easier.

If you press the right arrow, down arrow, left arrow and up arrow, you activate the cell one step in each direction.

But if you hold down Ctrl and instead press Ctrl+right arrow, Ctrl+down arrow, Ctrl+left arrow and Ctrl+up arrow, you activate the last non-empty cell in each direction.

If you hold down Shift instead and press Shift+right arrow, Shift+down arrow, Shift+left arrow and Shift+up arrow, you select one cell in each direction.

If you hold down both Ctrl and Shift at the same time together with one of the arrow keys, you select all cells between the cell where you were and the last non-empty cell in that direction.