Following is our standard listing of keyboard shortcut key combinations that excludes any discontinued shortcust and some of the more obscure shortcut alternatives.  That still leaves more than 150 entries!

These are the genuine Windows and Excel keyboard shortcuts that support application control and quick activation of commands.  This list does not include accelerator pathways for activating the Ribbon commands which are often incorrectly listed in shortcut listings, as these can be easily derived by looking at the Ribbon, and are subject to change depending upon window size.  See this article for information on working with the Ribbon Accelerators.

See the footnotes for a description of what the settings in each column mean.

As an alternative, if you have a login for the site, the Ready Reference 4 Keyboard Shortcut list is broken down into more manageable chunks, based on activity type.

Keyboard Shortcut List 

If a set of keys is shown with the plus sign (+) between them, the first (and sometimes second) need to be pressed while the second or last is struck.  If there is no plus sign between keystrokes, they should be pressed in sequence without the keys being held down together.

About the Columns

Shortcut

The combination of keys that make up the keyboard shortcut.

Mode

Ready: Ready mode is the normal selection command mode, denoted by the Ready flag in the Status Bar.
Enter:  Enter mode is the normal entry mode for formulas and constant values to be stored in cells.  It is denoted by the Enter or Point flags in the Ststus Bar.
Edit:    Edit mode is the mode for changing formula and cell contents.  Toggle between Enter and Edit modes using the F2 key.
All:      The shortcut works in all modes shown here.

Action

Describes the action taken taken by the shortcut key combination.

Shortcut Set

The action set for the different modes of interaction with Excel.  This allows filtering the list of shortcuts to the set of commands for specific types of work.

Key Set

Denotes which part of the key set the command is associated with.
The entry Top Row Numbers refers to the numeric / symbol keys in the top row of the keyboard.  It is importan to note that keyboard shortcuts including numbers, such as Ctrl+1, only work with the top row keys and NOT the numeric keypad.

Base Key

The base key for the shortcut.  To allow searching for all the combinations associated with a specific key, or sorting by key.

Type

Main:        The main keyboard shortcut combination
Alternate:  Some commands have two combinations available that are worthy of note.
Legacy:     Entries for old keyboard shortcuts for compatibility with old versions of Excel and Lotus 1-2-3.

Versions

The versions of Excel for which the command works.

Comprehensive List

We used to publish a more comprehensive list including duplicate and legacy keyboard shortcuts, but that listing has been retired, as that information is now available for those who need it in the Ready Reference 4 Keyboard shortcuts lists.