Top 5 Excel Shortcuts for the Mac
Many of you are transitioning to Excel for the Mac, and have asked us what our favorite Excel Mac shortcuts are. While our keyboard covers show the 20 most commonly used shortcuts, there are definitely a few gems that really make using Excel on the Mac that much better than the PC. That’s right…I said it…Excel for the Mac is better than the PC!
Here are the Top 5:
1) Autosum a Bunch of Numbers – SHIFT+COMMAND+T
We’ve all had to type =SUM(blah blah blah) before to sum a bunch of numbers. This handy shortcut let’s you create the sum automatically without having to type in the formula! Just go to the empty cell below a bunch of numbers you want to sum and hit shift+command+t and Excel automatically knows which cells you want to sum!
2) Increase/Decrease Font Size – SHIFT+COMMAND+. (increase) SHIFT+COMMAND+, (decrease)
The reason why this is the best Mac Excel shortcut is because it doesn’t even exist on the PC! Quickly increase and decrease the font size without going through the Format Cells menu or clicking on the pesky font size drop-down in the toolbar.
3) Delete Everything in Selected Cells – FN+DELETE
Why is it so hard to delete stuff in Excel for the Mac? Press fn+delete and you’ll actually delete everything in your selection and the delete button actually works like it’s intended to work.
4) Create Filter – SHIFT+COMMAND+F
You have a list of data and you need to create a filter. Instead of going through the regular toolbar, navigate to the first row with the field names in your list and hit shift+command+f. Simple.
5) Center Align Data – COMMAND+E
You have a bunch of cells with data and they are all weirdly aligned. Some are right-aligned and some are left-aligned. The reason why this shortcut is so powerful is because it’s SO EASY to use! There is no equivalent on the PC; the PC shortcut is ALT, H, A, C! Definitely a lot simpler to hit command+e in my opinion!
In conclusion, Excel for the Mac is pretty powerful…
Which Excel for Mac shortcuts do you use every day? Which Excel shortcuts on the PC do you wish existed on the Mac?
I’ve been a devoted Mac and Apple user for 20 years, but as someone who uses Excel every day at work I would say the PC version is better. I rarely touch my mouse at work. I use the dozens of hotkeys to carry out the most commonly used actions. With Excel for Mac I have to use my trackpad for almost every action. If I can use a hotkey (which is rare) I have to press multiple keys at once and more than I have to with a PC. You gave the example of auto summing, but the PC’s version “Alt” + “=” keeps the formula open so you can edit it as needed. The Mac version closes it so not only do I have to press three keys to the two for the PC I also have to reopen the cell, which as far as I know now I have to use my trackpad whereas with the PC I can just press “F2”.
Fair point! However in my experience I normally don’t need to edit the formula after doing the auto-summing with CMD+SHIFT+T on the Mac. To start editing the formula without using the trackpad, you can press CTRL+U which is equivalent to F2 on the PC.
If you type CMD+SHIFT+T on a Mac and leave the keys depressed for a second it will leave the formula open for editing.
Great tip! Thanks for the comment.