We all know the disruption the mouse enabled graphical user interface brought to the world. It was revolutionary. Without a doubt, navigation within the applications has become a lot more intuitive. However, for a regular user, using a mouse to work on Google Sheets can slow down productivity. Because, keyboard strokes take much less time to perform than using the mouse to navigate and click. In this article, we list down the most useful Google Sheets keyboard shortcuts. Since, working with the keyboard is much faster than with the mouse.
Google Sheets Keyboard Shortcuts
There are a lot of Google Sheets keyboard shortcuts available for us to be able to productively accomplish our day to day tasks. You may access the comprehensive list here. But, we list below the most useful ones below.
File actions
| Action | Windows | Mac |
| Save (every change is saved automatically in Drive) |
Ctrl + s | ⌘ + s |
| Open | Ctrl + o | ⌘ + o |
| Ctrl + p | ⌘ + p |
Data handling
| Action | Windows | Mac |
| Copy | Ctrl + c | ⌘ + c |
| Cut | Ctrl + x | ⌘ + x |
| Paste | Ctrl + v | ⌘ + v |
| Paste values only | Ctrl + Shift + v | ⌘ + Shift + v |
| Undo | Ctrl + z | ⌘ + z |
| Redo | Ctrl + y | ⌘ + y |
| Ctrl + Shift + z | ⌘ + Shift + z | |
| F4 | Fn + F4 | |
| Find | Ctrl + f | ⌘ + f |
| Find and replace | Ctrl + h | ⌘ + Shift + h |
| Fill range | Ctrl + Enter | ⌘ + Enter |
| Fill down | Ctrl + d | ⌘ + d |
| Fill right | Ctrl + r | ⌘ + r |
| Select all | Ctrl + a | ⌘ + a |
| Ctrl + Shift + Space | ⌘ + Shift + Space | |
| Select column | Ctrl + Space | Ctrl + Space |
| Select row | Shift + Space | Shift + Space |
Navigation
| Action | Windows | Mac |
| Move to beginning of row | Home | Fn + Left arrow |
| Move to beginning of sheet | Ctrl + Home | ⌘ + Fn + Left arrow |
| Move to end of row | End | Fn + Right arrow |
| Move to end of sheet | Ctrl + End | ⌘ + Fn + Right arrow |
| Scroll to active cell | Ctrl + Backspace | ⌘ + Backspace |
| Move to next sheet | Ctrl + Shift + Page Down | ⌘ + Shift + Fn + Down arrow |
| Move to previous sheet | Ctrl + Shift + Page Up | ⌘ + Shift + Fn + Up arrow |
| Display list of sheets | Alt + Shift + k | Option + Shift + k |
| Open hyperlink | Alt + Enter | Option + Enter |
| Open Explore | Alt + Shift + x | Option + Shift + x |
| Move focus out of spreadsheet | Ctrl + Alt + Shift + m | Ctrl + ⌘ + Shift + m |
| Open drop-down menu on filtered cell | Ctrl + Alt + r | Ctrl + ⌘ + r |
Formatting
| Action | Windows | Mac |
| Bold | Ctrl + b | ⌘ + b |
| Underline | Ctrl + u | ⌘ + u |
| Italic | Ctrl + i | ⌘ + i |
| Strikethrough | Alt + Shift + 5 | Option + Shift + 5 |
| Center align | Ctrl + Shift + e | ⌘ + Shift + e |
| Left align | Ctrl + Shift + l | ⌘ + Shift + l |
| Right align | Ctrl + Shift + r | ⌘ + Shift + r |
| Apply outer border | Alt + Shift + 7 | Option + Shift + 7 |
| Ctrl + Shift + 7 | ⌘ + Shift + 7 | |
| Apply top border | Alt + Shift + 1 | Option + Shift + 1 |
| Apply right border | Alt + Shift + 2 | Option + Shift + 2 |
| Apply bottom border | Alt + Shift + 3 | Option + Shift + 3 |
| Apply left border | Alt + Shift + 4 | Option + Shift + 4 |
| Remove borders | Alt + Shift + 6 | Option + Shift + 6 |
| Insert link | Ctrl + k | ⌘ + k |
| Insert time | Ctrl + Shift + ; | ⌘ + Shift + ; |
| Insert date | Ctrl + ; | ⌘ + ; |
| Insert date and time | Ctrl + Alt + Shift + ; | ⌘ + Option + Shift + ; |
| Format as decimal | Ctrl + Shift + 1 | Ctrl + Shift + 1 |
| Format as time | Ctrl + Shift + 2 | Ctrl + Shift + 2 |
| Format as date | Ctrl + Shift + 3 | Ctrl + Shift + 3 |
| Format as currency | Ctrl + Shift + 4 | Ctrl + Shift + 4 |
| Format as percentage | Ctrl + Shift + 5 | Ctrl + Shift + 5 |
| Format as exponent | Ctrl + Shift + 6 | Ctrl + Shift + 6 |
| Clear formatting | Ctrl + \ | ⌘ + \ |
Notes and comments
| Action | Windows | Mac |
| Insert/edit note | Shift + F2 | Shift + F2 |
| Insert/edit comment | Ctrl + Alt + m | ⌘ + Option + m |
| Open comment discussion thread | Ctrl + Alt + Shift + a | ⌘ + Option + Shift + a |
| Enter current comment | holding Ctrl + Alt, press e then c | holding Ctrl + ⌘, press e then c |
| Move to next comment | holding Ctrl + Alt, press n then c | holding Ctrl + ⌘, press n then c |
| Move to previous comment | holding Ctrl + Alt, press p then c | holding Ctrl + ⌘, press p then c |
That was the list of most commonly used Google Sheets keyboard shortcuts. Should you need more of these hacks to maximize your productivity in Google Sheets, check out our blog post with 10 spreadsheet tips and tricks.
