Excel Shortcuts Cheat Sheet: Windows vs Mac

The general rule for converting Excel shortcuts between platforms is simple: swap Ctrl for Cmd. That rule gets you through most of Excel — but it breaks in specific, memorable ways, and those exceptions are exactly the shortcuts that trip people up when they switch computers. This page is about the exceptions, not another full copy of the shortcut list (you can find the complete side-by-side table on the full Excel shortcuts page).

The rule: Ctrl becomes Cmd

Copy, paste, undo, save, bold, italic — all of these follow the simple swap. If you already know the Windows shortcut, replace Ctrl with Cmd and you’re done.

Exception 1: A few shortcuts keep Ctrl on Mac

Not everything swaps. A handful of Excel shortcuts use the same Ctrl key on both Windows and Mac — usually because they’re inherited from the operating system’s own text-editing conventions rather than from Excel itself.

Exception 2: Some Mac shortcuts use an entirely different key

These aren’t a simple Ctrl-to-Cmd swap — the actual letter or symbol changes too, usually to avoid colliding with a macOS system shortcut.

The number-format ones are the easiest to get wrong: on Windows you’re pressing the symbol ($, %, #), but on Mac you press the plain number key underneath it (4, 5, 3) — the symbol isn’t what Excel is actually looking for, it’s whatever’s on that physical key.

Everything at once

Want to practice both layouts side by side instead of memorizing exceptions? The trainer below shows Windows and Mac for every question, so you build the right one for whichever machine you’re on:

For the full categorized reference, see the complete Excel keyboard shortcuts list.