# Excel keyboard shortcuts The muscle memory a spreadsheet user arrives with, on any `` with cell selection on. One call turns it on: ```ts import { setLicenseKey, enableSheet } from '@svgrid/enterprise' setLicenseKey('YOUR-KEY') enableSheet() ``` ```svelte ``` `enableSheet()` is idempotent, so call it from every component that wants it or once at app start. `installEnterprise()` calls it for you. If you only want the shortcuts, import from the `/sheet` subpath so the rest of the pack (export, pivot, the scheduler, the board) stays out of your bundle: ```ts import { enableSheet } from '@svgrid/enterprise/sheet' ``` > Live demo: Excel keyboard shortcuts - https://svgrid.com/demos/452-excel-shortcuts/ ## The keymap ### Navigation | Key | Action | | --- | ------ | | Ctrl/Cmd + Arrow | Jump to the edge of the data region. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Arrow | The same jump, extending the selection from its far corner; the active cell stays at the anchor. | | Ctrl/Cmd + A, Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Space | Select the current region; press again for the whole sheet. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + 8 (Ctrl + \*) | Select the current region, and only that. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Space | Select the whole columns the selection touches; the active cell stays. | | Shift + Space | Select the whole rows the selection touches; the active cell stays. | | Ctrl/Cmd + End | The last used cell (the grid's own Ctrl+Home is A1). | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + End / Home | Extend the selection to the last used cell, or to A1. | | Shift + Home, Shift + PageUp / PageDown | The grid's own: extend the selection to column A, or by a page, from its far corner. | The mouse follows Excel's rules too: a click on a column letter or a row number selects the whole line and puts the active cell on its first VISIBLE row or column, a drag along the letters or the numbers selects a run, Shift+click extends the run from the active cell's line, Ctrl+click adds a line beside the selection, and the corner selects everything without moving the active cell. The keyboard stays on the sheet afterwards: an arrow collapses to the active cell, Shift+Arrow grows a run of whole lines, and typing lands in the active cell. Shift+Arrow and the extending keys scroll along their own axis only, so a whole-column selection does not jump to the bottom of the sheet when it grows sideways. ### Fill and entry | Key | Action | | --- | ------ | | Ctrl/Cmd + D | Fill down. | | Ctrl/Cmd + R | Fill right. | | Ctrl/Cmd + ; | Stamp today's date. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + ; | Stamp the current time. | | Ctrl/Cmd + ' | Copy the cell above, unchanged. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + " | Copy the value of the cell above: what a formula there shows, as a number or text. | | Alt + = | AutoSum the run above, or to the left. With one cell selected the `=SUM(...)` is proposed in the cell's editor, as Excel's is, so the range can be corrected before Enter takes it; a wider selection has it written outright. | | F4 (while editing) | Turn the reference at the caret through `$A$1`, `A$1`, `$A1`, `A1`; a range turns both ends. Also in the formula bar. | | Alt + Enter (while editing) | A line break in the cell, which turns on Wrap Text. | | Enter after a run of Tabs | Down a row and back to the column the run began in. | | Ctrl/Cmd + 9 / Ctrl/Cmd + 0 | Hide the selected rows / columns (raised as `hide-rows` / `hide-columns`). | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + 9 / Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + 0 | Unhide the rows / columns the selection spans (`unhide-rows` / `unhide-columns`). | | Enter / Tab inside a selected block | Walk the block, wrapping at its edges; the block stays selected. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Enter (while editing) | The entry into every cell of the selected block, staying put. | ### Formatting These write through the store you attach with `setFormatTarget`. Until you attach one they decline, so the key falls through rather than looking broken. See [number formats](https://svgrid.com/docs/help/cells/number-formats/). | Key | Action | | --- | ------ | | Ctrl/Cmd + B / I / U | Bold, italic, underline. | | Ctrl/Cmd + 5 | Strikethrough. | | Ctrl/Cmd + 1 | Open Format Cells: the sheet shell's own dialog, or your `setFormatDialogHandler` on a plain grid. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + 1..6 | Number, time, date, currency, percent, scientific. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + ` | General. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + > / < | Increase / decrease the font size one rung. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + & | Outline border around the selection. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + _ | Remove every border in the selection. | ### Structure, search and paste These open your own chrome rather than any this layer ships, through `setFindReplaceHandler`, `setPasteSpecialHandler` and `setFormatDialogHandler`. See [paste, find and structure](https://svgrid.com/docs/help/cells/paste-find-structure/). | Key | Action | | --- | ------ | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Plus | Insert rows or columns, rewriting every formula. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Minus | Delete rows or columns, rewriting every formula. | | Ctrl/Cmd + H | Find and Replace. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + V | Paste Special. | | Enter, while the marching ants are up | Paste the copied block here once and leave copy mode; Ctrl+V pastes and keeps the ants. | | F9 | Recalculate. | | Ctrl/Cmd + ` | Show formulas instead of values. | | Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + L | The filter row. | | Shift + F3 | Insert Function. | | Shift + F2 | Insert or edit the comment on the active cell (raised as `edit-comment`). | | Alt + Down | Drop the list a validated cell offers (raised as `open-list`). | | Ctrl/Cmd + F1 | Collapse or expand the ribbon (raised as `toggle-ribbon`). | | Ctrl/Cmd + F3 | Name Manager. | | Ctrl/Cmd + T | Format as Table: the shell's Create Table dialog over the selection. | The last seven raise the same actions as the ribbon buttons that name them; on a plain grid, `setRibbonActionHandler` decides what answers. A command that needs the clipboard calls `cmd.copy()`, `cmd.cut()` or `cmd.paste()` on its `GridCommandContext`: the selection copy, cut and paste that Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V run, cell by cell through `processCellForClipboard`. A collapsed row is left out of a copy and a fill unless the grid's `includeCollapsedRows` says otherwise for it, which is how a spreadsheet copies a row hidden by hand and skips one a filter folded, and fills the same way. The api's `copyToClipboard` is something else, the export of the displayed rows with their headers. ### Workbook These need a workbook attached with `setWorkbook`; without one they decline, so a single-sheet grid leaves `Ctrl+PageDown` to the browser. See [workbooks](https://svgrid.com/docs/help/cells/workbooks/). | Key | Action | | --- | ------ | | Ctrl/Cmd + Page Down / Page Up | Next / previous sheet, stepping over hidden ones. | | Shift + F11 | New sheet. | | Ctrl/Cmd + O | Open a file (the shell's File > Open): an .xlsx, an .ods, an .xls or a .csv, decided by the bytes rather than the name. | | Ctrl/Cmd + S | Save As .xlsx (File > Save As). The File tab has Save As ODS and Save As XLS beside it. | | Ctrl/Cmd + P | Print the active sheet as its Page Layout says (File > Print). | ## What Ctrl+Arrow actually does It is not "move a long way". It is a run-boundary search, and the rule depends on what you are standing on: - On a filled cell whose neighbour is also filled: run to the **last filled cell before the next blank**. This is how you get from the top of a column to its bottom in one press. - On a filled cell whose neighbour is blank: **skip the gap** and land on the next filled cell. This is how you hop between blocks. - On a blank cell: skip to the next filled cell. - Nothing filled ahead: land on the last cell of the sheet in that direction. A cell holding `null`, `undefined` or `''` counts as blank. A `0`, a `false` and a whitespace-only string are content, so a column of zeroes does not trap the cursor. ## Fill has two behaviours, like Excel `Ctrl+D` with a **range** selected copies the top row of that range into every row below it. With a **single cell** selected it pulls from the cell directly above instead, which is what makes it useful while typing down a column. `Ctrl+R` mirrors both, across instead of down. Both run as one undoable action: filling thirty rows takes one `Ctrl+Z`, not thirty. Fill is reference-aware: `=A1*2` filled one row down becomes `=A2*2`, while `=$A$1*B1` keeps its anchor and becomes `=$A$1*B2`. See [spreadsheet formulas](https://svgrid.com/docs/help/spreadsheet-formulas/). `Ctrl+'` is deliberately not a fill. It copies the cell above **verbatim**, so you get an unshifted copy of the formula to edit rather than one that has already moved. ## Dates land as ISO, not as display text `Ctrl+;` writes `2026-09-13`, not `13/09/2026`. The value goes into your data and a column's own [`format`](https://svgrid.com/docs/help/cells/cell-data-types/) decides how it reads; stamping a localised string would put display text in the model. ## What the grid still owns `enableSheet()` does not take every key. Copy, cut, plain paste, undo, redo and find stay with the grid, and the plain arrow keys still move one cell. A command only claims a key when it has something to do: `Ctrl+D` on the top row with nothing above it declines, and the key falls through to the grid. While a cell editor is open, every shortcut here declines, so nothing swallows a keystroke you meant for the editor. ## Escape closes what is open Escape backs out of whatever is in front, the way Excel's does: the marching ants after a copy, an open right-click menu, or a dialog. A right-click menu closes on Escape as well as on a click away, so a keyboard user who opened it is never trapped under it. A dialog opens with focus on its first control - the active tab or the first field - never the header close button, so Enter runs the dialog's primary action rather than dismissing it the instant it opens; Escape closes it and hands focus back to the cells. ## Binding your own The registry the sheet keymap uses is public and free, in `@svgrid/grid`: ```ts import { registerGridShortcuts } from '@svgrid/grid/shortcuts' const off = registerGridShortcuts((event, cmd) => { if (!(event.ctrlKey && event.key === 'k')) return false const active = cmd.activeCell if (!active) return false cmd.batch(() => { for (const [minRow, minCol, maxRow, maxCol] of cmd.ranges) { for (let r = minRow; r <= maxRow; r += 1) { for (let c = minCol; c <= maxCol; c += 1) cmd.setCellValue(r, c, 0) } } }) return true // claim the key; the grid stops here }, { id: 'my-app', priority: 10 }) ``` Return `true` to consume the event, `false` to let it fall through. Higher `priority` runs first; the sheet keymap registers at 100. Reusing an `id` replaces that handler rather than stacking a second copy. The returned function unregisters. Indices in `cmd` are **display** indices, matching the selection model, so they follow sort, filter and pagination. That is why `cmd.getCellValue` exists alongside `api.getCellValue`: the api pair indexes the underlying data array, and mixing the two gives you the wrong cell as soon as the grid is sorted. Wrap any multi-cell write in `cmd.batch()` so it undoes in one press. ## While editing A binding marked `editing: true` runs only inside the cell editor, and the others only outside it, so Ctrl+D while typing stays a keystroke for the text. The editor's element reaches such a binding as `cmd.editor`, which is how F4 reads and rewrites the draft. Alt+Enter needs no binding: the grid's multiline text editor takes it as a line break itself. --- SvGrid is the Svelte 5 data grid (`npm install @svgrid/grid`, MIT). This page: https://svgrid.com/docs/help/cells/keyboard-shortcuts/ . All docs: https://svgrid.com/llms.txt