There are three quick tips for working with Excel workbooks. I just prefer Ctrl+W because it has uses in other applications.īonus tip: You can also use Ctrl+W to close the current tab in your web browser. You can just hit Enter to save and close the file.Ĭtrl+F4 is another way to close the workbook. If the workbook needs to be saved, you will be prompted with the Save / Don't Save / Cancel dialog.
The shortcut to close the workbook on the Mac version is: Cmd+ W My favorite shortcut to close the workbook is: Ctrl+ W There are quite a few different ways to close an Excel file. You can also use Alt+ Tab to flip between two workbooks, or any open application window.Ĭtrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab are best when you are switching between three or more workbooks, and only want to toggle within Excel.īonus tip: Ctrl+Tab also works for cycling through the tabs in your web browser. The shortcuts are the same on the Mac version of Excel. You can also go to the previous workbook by pressing: Ctrl+ Shift+ Tab The keyboard shortcut to cycle through the open workbooks is: Ctrl+ Tab
You can see a list of all the open Excel files on the View tab in the Switch Windows drop-down. Sometimes I'll have three or more workbooks open that I want to quickly flip through. If you have a bunch of files open and want to close them all at once so you can get out of the office quicker, then check out my post on 3 Tips to Save & Close All Excel Files. You can also paste in folder paths to the address bar for quick navigation to a different folder.
However, I tend to prefer the Save As window because you can rename and change locations in one place. These shortcuts are mostly for copying and pasting objects in the worksheet such as cells, ranges, tables, and pivot tables. You can set this view to open when pressing F12 by going to Excel Options > Save and uncheck “Don't show Backstage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts.” The latest versions of Excel also make file renaming easy on the File > Save As Backstage view. The shorcut for the Save As window on the Mac version is: Cmd+ Shift+ S Checkout my article on the best keyboards for Excel for more info on that. If you are using a laptop or keyboard with multi-purpose function keys you might need to press Fn+F12. The keyboard shortcut to open the Save As window is: F12 If you want to save the file you are currently working on with a different name or in a different folder, then you need to open the Save As window. In this post, I'm going to share the three that I probably use the most to save time with these common tasks. There are a ton of shortcuts for navigating and interacting with Excel workbooks. Bottom line: Learn 3 quick shortcuts to save, close, and navigate Excel workbooks.