Keyboard and accessibility
Everything works without a mouse, with Excel’s keys. In the editor, Ctrl+/ (⌘/ on a Mac) lists every shortcut.
Moving around the editor
Section titled “Moving around the editor”Tab stays in the grid, as it does in Excel, so F6 (Ctrl+F6 where the browser keeps F6) moves between the toolbar, format bar, formula bar, sheet, side panel and sheet tabs. Typing a cell such as B4, or a name, in the name box goes there, and Alt+Down lists the workbook’s names.
The sheet tabs are one stop: the arrow keys, Home and End move between them, Enter shows a sheet, Alt+Shift+Left and Right move it, F2 renames it, and Shift+F10 opens its menu. Dialogs keep the focus inside, close with Escape, and hand the focus back.
Shortcuts
Section titled “Shortcuts”Moving around
| Windows and Linux | Mac | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Arrow keys | Move between cells |
| Tab, Shift+Tab | Tab, Shift+Tab | Move right, left |
| Shift+Arrow keys | Shift+Arrow keys | Select more cells |
| F6 or Ctrl+F6, with Shift to go back | F6 or Ctrl+F6, with Shift to go back | Move to the next or previous part of the editor: toolbar, formula bar (type a cell such as B4 in its box to go there), sheet, side panel, sheet tabs |
Editing
| Windows and Linux | Mac | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Typing | Typing | Replaces the cell's contents |
| Enter | Enter | Edit the cell, or finish editing and move down |
| Escape | Escape | Cancel editing |
| Delete, Backspace | Delete, Backspace | Clear the selected cells |
| Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y | ⌘Z, ⇧⌘Z | Undo, redo |
| Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V | ⌘X, ⌘C, ⌘V | Cut, copy, paste |
| Tab or Enter | Tab or Enter | In a formula, insert the function highlighted in the list of names that match what you typed (arrow keys move through it, Escape closes it) |
| F4 | F4 | In a formula, switch the reference at the cursor between relative and absolute: A1, $A$1, A$1, $A1 |
| Ctrl++, Ctrl+- | ⌘+, ⌘- | Insert or delete cells, rows or columns |
| Ctrl+Shift+L | ⇧⌘F | Add or remove filter buttons |
| Alt+Down arrow | ⌥↓ | Open a heading's filter menu |
| Alt+F1 | ⌥F1 | Insert a column chart of the data |
| Ctrl+Alt+5 | ⌃⌥5 | Select the charts, pictures and shapes; Tab goes through them |
| Alt+F5 | ⌥F5 | Refresh the sheet's pivot tables |
| Ctrl+Alt+F5 | ⌃⌥F5 | Refresh every pivot table |
Commands
| Windows and Linux | Mac | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Shift+F10, Menu key | Shift+F10, Menu key | Cell menu: fill down and right, notes and comments, insert and delete rows and columns, column width, sort, filter |
| Shift+F2 | Shift+F2 | Add or edit the cell's note, or read and reply to its comments |
| Ctrl+Enter | ⌘Enter | Follow the cell's link |
| Alt+Shift+Right | ⌥⇧→ | Group the selected rows or columns |
| Alt+Shift+Left | ⌥⇧← | Ungroup the selected rows or columns |
| Ctrl+F | ⌘F | Find and replace |
| Ctrl+G | ⌘G | Next match while finding (with Shift, the previous one) |
| Ctrl+S | ⌘S | Save |
| Ctrl+/ | ⌘/, ⌃/ | This list |
Sheet tabs
| Windows and Linux | Mac | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Shift+F10, Menu key | Shift+F10, Menu key | Sheet menu: insert, rename, delete, move, hide and unhide sheets |
| Alt+Shift+Left, Alt+Shift+Right | ⌥⇧←, ⌥⇧→ | Move the sheet whose tab has the focus left or right |
| F2 | F2 | Rename the sheet whose tab has the focus |
Browser shortcuts
Section titled “Browser shortcuts”The editor takes a browser shortcut only for the same job: Ctrl+S saves, Ctrl+F finds, Ctrl+Z undoes. It never repurposes one, so Ctrl+R still reloads the page and Ctrl+D still bookmarks it; Excel’s fill down and fill right are in the cell menu instead. On a Mac, ⌘Y is left to the browser’s history, and redo is ⇧⌘Z.
Screen readers
Section titled “Screen readers”Screen readers hear each cell by its reference and as it’s shown, then what the grid only marks in colour: a merge, a formula and whether its value is out of date, the formula a spilled value comes from, a change, a list, a note or comments, where a link goes, and any schema problem. For example: “D3, twelve, changed, error: Expected a number.”
Rows and columns are numbered as the sheet numbers them, past hidden ones and below frozen ones. What an action did is said too: undoing and redoing, inserting and deleting, how many rows a filter hides, opening a file, and what’s wrong with a value just typed. Errors are said at once; other messages as they arrive.
Contrast, colours and motion
Section titled “Contrast, colours and motion”The default theme meets WCAG 2.2 AA contrast. Focus stays visible in Windows’ forced colours, and the busy spinner slows for people who ask for less motion. Themes you write are yours to check; the theme tokens cover every colour the editor uses.
On a phone, the editor keeps the grid in view: the toolbar’s actions scroll sideways in one row, the side panel opens over the sheet when asked for, a cell’s note or problem appears under the formula bar since nothing hovers on touch, and the ⋯ button there opens the cell menu. A tap selects a cell and a second tap edits it.