16 Best Excel Selection Shortcuts to Work Faster (Cheat Sheet)

The 16 best Excel selection shortcuts to work faster with the keyboard only.

Mastering these key combinations is the single fastest way to boost your productivity in Excel, whether you handle small tables or spreadsheets with thousands of rows.

This guide covers cell-by-cell selections, jump-to-edge shortcuts, screen-by-screen navigation, and full table selection — everything you need to stop using the mouse in Microsoft Excel.

Excel selection of 8 shortcuts: quick reference cheat sheet

Action	Shortcut
Extend selection one cell up	SHIFT + ↑
Extend selection one cell down	SHIFT + ↓
Extend selection to last cell with data	CTRL + SHIFT + ↓
Select entire row	SHIFT + SPACE
Select entire column	CTRL + SPACE
Select entire table	CTRL + A
Jump to cell A1	CTRL + HOME
Toggle extended selection mode	F8

Cell-by-cell selection shortcuts in Excel

The most basic Excel selection shortcuts let you extend your selection one cell at a time, in any direction. These four combinations are the foundation every Excel user should memorize first.

Extend the selection vertically

1. Extend the Excel selection one cell up: SHIFT + ARROW UP
2. Extend the Excel selection one cell down: SHIFT + ARROW DOWN

Extend the selection horizontally

1. Extend the Excel selection one cell to the right: SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW
2. Extend the Excel selection one cell to the left: SHIFT + LEFT ARROW

Jump-to-last-cell selection shortcuts

These are the most powerful Excel shortcuts for working with large datasets. Adding CTRL to the previous shortcuts makes Excel jump straight to the last filled cell in any direction, instantly selecting thousands of rows or columns.

Select to the last cell vertically

1. Extend the Excel selection to the last filled cell above: CTRL + SHIFT + ARROW UP
2. Extend the Excel selection to the last filled cell below: CTRL + SHIFT + DOWN ARROW

Select to the last cell horizontally

1. Extend the Excel selection to the last filled cell on the right: CTRL + SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW
2. Extend the Excel selection to the last filled cell on the left: CTRL + SHIFT + LEFT ARROW

Screen-by-screen Excel selection shortcuts

When working with medium-sized tables that don’t fit on one screen, the page-up and page-down shortcuts let you extend your selection one viewport at a time. Useful for visual review of large datasets.

Extend the selection vertically by one screen

1. Extend the Excel selection to the next screen above: SHIFT + PAGE UP
2. Extend the Excel selection to the next screen below: SHIFT + PAGE DOWN

Extend the selection horizontally by one screen

1. Extend the Excel selection to the next screen on the right: ALT + SHIFT + PAGE DOWN
2. Extend the Excel selection to the next screen on the left: ALT + SHIFT + PAGE UP

Row, column and full-table selection shortcuts

Beyond cell-by-cell navigation, Excel offers powerful shortcuts to select an entire row, an entire column, or the whole worksheet in a single keystroke. These are essential for formatting, deleting, or copying large blocks of data.

Jump to the first or last cell of the file

1. Extend the Excel selection to the first cell of the row: SHIFT + HOME
2. Extend the Excel selection to the first cell of the file (A1): CTRL + SHIFT + HOME
3. Extend the Excel selection to the last cell of the file: CTRL + SHIFT + END

Activate the Excel extended selection mode

1. Toggle the extended selection mode on or off: F8

Pro tip: when extended selection mode is active (you’ll see “Extend Selection” in the Excel status bar), every arrow key press extends your selection without needing to hold SHIFT. Press F8 again to deactivate it.

FAQ on Excel selection shortcuts

What is the shortcut to select an entire column in Excel?

Press CTRL + SPACE to select the entire column of the active cell. To select an entire row instead, press SHIFT + SPACE.

How to select thousands of rows in Excel without scrolling?

Click the first cell, then press CTRL + SHIFT + DOWN ARROW. Excel will instantly select every row down to the last filled cell, no matter how many thousands of rows your table contains.

What does F8 do in Excel?

F8 toggles the extended selection mode. When active, every arrow key press extends the current selection without holding SHIFT. Press F8 a second time to turn it off.

Conclusion: master Excel with the keyboard only

These 16 Excel selection shortcuts cover every scenario you’ll face daily, from selecting a single cell to grabbing an entire dataset of thousands of rows in two keystrokes. Memorizing them will save you hours every week and let you keep both hands on the keyboard.

To go further with Excel productivity, this other tutorial explains how to display the day name from a date with an Excel formula.