There’s thousands of Google Sheets shortcuts, but only a few dozen that matter for financial modeling purposes. I've created a list of the most important shortcuts for Google Sheets for financial modeling below. If you're going to memorize shortcuts - memorize these!
I put together this shortcuts list assuming you will be building financial models in Google Sheets from scratch and that you know most of the "basic" shortcuts like Copy, Paste, Fill Right, and Fill Down.
Financial modeling shortcuts are important to get down because you'll be using these shortcuts A LOT. They are not one-time shortcuts like adding or removing gridlines or even adjusting font height. You only really need to do these shortcuts a few times. The shortcuts I've written below you'll be using tens or hundreds of times in your work and will make you much more productive.
Because not all shortcuts exist in Google Sheets that are necessary for financial modeling, I've included the corresponding shortcut command if you were to leverage SheetWhiz, the Chrome extension that brings Excel shortcuts to Google Sheets. The tool is free to try and available here. Note SheetWhiz shortcuts are fully customizable so I'm just listing the default shortcuts here, but you can change them as needed.
Note: I am showing the Google Sheets shortcuts that are defaults when you open a spreadsheet. You can also enable additional spreadsheet shortcuts by following the instructions here.
Command | Google Sheets Shortcut | SheetWhiz (All are fully customizable) |
Insert Columns & Rows | PC: Ctrl + Alt + + Mac: ⌘ + Option + + | PC: Ctrl + Shift + + Mac: Ctrl + Option + + |
Delete Columns & Rows | PC: Ctrl + Alt + + Mac: ⌘ + Option + - | PC: Ctrl + Shift + - Mac: Ctrl + Option + - |
Autofit Column Width | PC: Alt, H, O, I Mac: Option, H, O, I | |
Autofit Row Height | PC: Alt, H, O, A Mac: Option, H, O, A | |
Set Column Width | PC: Alt, H, O, W Mac: Option, H, O, W | |
Set Row Height | PC: Alt, H, O, H Mac: Option, H, O, H | |
Top Border | PC: Alt + Shift + 1 Mac: Option + Shift + 1 | Alt, H, B, P |
Left Border | PC: Alt + Shift + 4 Mac: Option + Shift + 4 | Alt, H, B, L |
Right Border | PC: Alt + Shift + 2 Mac: Option + Shift + 2 | Alt, H, B, R |
Bottom Border | PC: Alt + Shift + 3 Mac: Option + Shift + 3 | Alt, H, B, O |
Outside Border | PC: Alt + Shift + 7 Mac: Option + Shift + 7 | Alt, H, B, S |
Paste Formulas | Alt, E, S, F | |
Paste Values | PC: Ctrl + Shift + v Mac: ⌘ + Shift + v | Alt, E, S, V |
Paste Formatting | PC: Ctrl + Alt + v Mac: ⌘ + Option + v | Alt, E, S, T |
Align Left | PC: Ctrl + Shift + l Mac: ⌘ + Shift + l | Alt, H, A, L |
Align Center | PC: Ctrl + Shift + e Mac: ⌘ + Shift + e | Alt, H, A, C |
Align Right | PC: Ctrl + Shift + r Mac: ⌘ + Shift + r | Alt, H, A, R |
Increase Decimal | Alt, H, 0 | |
Reduce Decimal | Alt, H, 9 | |
Hide Columns | PC: Ctrl + Alt + 0 Mac: ⌘ + Option + 0 | Coming Soon |
Unhide Cells | PC: Ctrl + Shift + 0 Mac: ⌘ + Option + 0 | Coming Soon |
Merge Cells | Coming Soon | |
Unmerge Cells | Coming Soon | |
Search Bar in GSheets | PC: Alt + / Mac: Option + / |
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