Keyboard shortcuts challenge
8 minutes · 6 steps · free, no sign-up
Good spreadsheet users barely touch the mouse. A dozen shortcuts save hours over a year, and they are quick to learn if you practise them. This lesson is a short challenge: do each task using the keyboard.
- Jump to the edge of your data with Ctrl and the arrow keys
- Go home and select everything
- Bold with Ctrl+B
- Copy and paste with Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V
Click a cell and start typing. Enter edits, Tab moves right, arrows move, Delete clears.
Quick referenceThe shortcuts
Ctrl + arrow keys jump to the edge of the data
Ctrl + Home go to A1
Ctrl + A select everything
Ctrl + B bold
Ctrl + C / V / X copy / paste / cut
Ctrl + Z / Y undo / redo
Ctrl + D fill downThe key ideasSummary: Keyboard shortcuts challenge
The shortcuts fall into three groups: moving (Ctrl with an arrow jumps across a block of data, Ctrl+Home returns to the start), selecting (Shift with an arrow extends a selection, Ctrl+A takes everything) and editing (copy, cut, paste, undo and fill down).
On a Mac use Cmd instead of Ctrl. If you learn only one habit from this lesson, make it Ctrl+Z. Knowing you can undo anything makes it much easier to experiment.
Watch out forCommon mistakes
- Dragging to select a long list. Click the first cell, hold Shift and press Ctrl+↓ to select down to the end of the data.
- Pasting formulas and expecting the same result. Copying a formula shifts its relative references. Cutting does not. That is often what you want, but be aware of it.
- Using Ctrl+Arrow in a column with gaps. It stops at each gap. Keep your data unbroken, or press the shortcut again to jump to the next block.
Next stepTry it in the real Google Sheets
In Google Sheets press Ctrl+/ to see every keyboard shortcut. Useful extras: Ctrl+Shift+V pastes values only, and Alt+Enter starts a new line inside a cell.