This post introduces some useful keyboard shortcuts in Excel and gives some ways to help you create an Excel desktop shortcut for easy access. A free tool to help you recover deleted/lost Excel files is also provided.

List of Useful Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

Ctrl + N: create a new workbook

Ctrl + O: open an existing workbook

Ctrl + S: save an Excel file

Ctrl + W: close the current workbook

Ctrl + F4: close Excel

Ctrl + Z: undo recent action

Ctrl + B: apply bold formatting

Ctrl + I: to italicize the text

Ctrl + Page Down: move to the next sheet

Ctrl + Page Up: move to the previous sheet

Alt + A: go to the Data tab

Alt + W: go to the View tab

Alt + M: go to the Formula tab

Alt + H: go to the Home tab

Alt + P: go to the Page Layout tab

Alt + F: open the File menu

Ctrl + 9: hide the selected rows

Ctrl + 0: hid the selected columns

Ctrl + Home: select the first visible cell in the sheet

Ctrl + End: select the last used cell in the sheet

Ctrl + F: open the Find window

Ctrl + H: open the Find & Replace window

Tab: enter and move right

Shift + Tab: enter and move left

F2: to edit a cell

Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V: to copy and paste cells

Alt + H + H: to fill color

Alt + H + A + C: to center align cell contents

Alt + H + B: to add a border

Ctrl + Shift +_: to remove outline border

Ctrl + Shift + &: to add an outline to the selected cells

Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow: to select all the cells on the right

Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow: to select all the cells on the left

Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow: to select all the cells below the selected cell

Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow: to select all the cells above the selected cell

Shift + F2: to add a comment to a cell

Shift + F10 + D: to delete a cell comment

Ctrl + ;: to insert the current date

Ctrl + Shift + :: to insert the current time

Ctrl + K: to insert a hyperlink

Ctrl + Shift + $: to apply the currency format

Ctrl + Shift + %: to apply the percent format

For more useful Excel keyboard shortcuts, you may visit Keyboard shortcuts in Excel.

Create a Desktop Shortcut for Excel

You can use one of the three ways below to create an Excel desktop shortcut on Windows 10/11.

Way 1. Click Start or press Windows + S, type excel, and you can see Excel App in the search results. Right-click Excel App and select Pin to Start or Pin to Taskbar. After you pin the Excel app to the Start or Taskbar, you can click the Excel app and drag your mouse to the desktop to create a desktop shortcut for Microsoft Excel.

Way 2. After you find the Excel app, you can also select Open file location after you right-click it. After you locate the Excel application in File Explorer, you can right-click the Excel app and select Send to > Desktop (create shortcut) to make a desktop shortcut for Excel.

Way 3. You can also right-click the blank area on the desktop and select New > Shortcut. In the Create Shortcut window, you can enter the file path of Excel and click Next. To find Excel’s file path, you can follow the operation in Way 2. Type a name for the Excel shortcut and click Finish to create the Excel desktop shortcut.

create a desktop shortcut for Microsoft Excel

Recover Deleted/Lost Excel Files

If you mistakenly deleted some Excel files and emptied the Recycle Bin and want to recover the deleted Excel files, you need to use a data recovery program.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a professional free data recovery program for Windows. You can use it to recover any deleted or lost files like Excel files, Word documents, photos, videos, emails, etc. from Windows computers, USB flash drives, memory cards, external hard drives, etc. It can help you restore data from various data loss situations.

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