MMicrosoft Excel keyboard shortcuts

Cycle absolute and relative references with one key⌘+T

While editing a formula, click into a cell reference and press F4 (Cmd+T on Mac): the reference cycles through $A$1, A$1, $A1, and back to A1 with each press. No more manually typing dollar signs before locking a lookup range. Outside of formula editing, F4 does something equally useful — it repeats your last action, like reapplying the formatting you just set.

Let Flash Fill split or combine columns from an example

Next to a column of data, type one example of what you want extracted — say "Jane" beside "Jane Smith" — and in the cell below press Ctrl+E on Windows or run Data > Flash Fill. Excel infers the pattern and fills the entire column: splitting names, pulling domains out of emails, or reformatting phone numbers, all without writing a single formula.

Double-click the fill handle instead of dragging

Select a cell containing a formula and double-click the small square at its bottom-right corner. Excel copies the formula down automatically, stopping where the neighboring column's data ends — whether that is 50 rows or 50,000. Dragging the handle down thousands of rows by hand is never necessary when an adjacent column already defines the range.

Pick from existing column values with Alt+Down⌥+↓

In an empty cell below a column of text entries, press Alt+Down (Option+Down on Mac): Excel shows a dropdown of every distinct value already used in that column. Choose with the arrow keys and press Enter. It guarantees consistent spelling in status or category columns without setting up data validation.

Debug a formula by evaluating just part of itf9

In the formula bar, select any self-contained fragment of a formula — an inner function, a range, a condition — and press F9: Excel replaces the selected fragment with its computed result so you can see exactly what that piece returns. Inspect as many pieces as you like, then press Esc (not Enter) to restore the original formula unchanged.