Excel Shortcuts for Google Sheets

Alt E S V is one of the most-used key sequences in Excel: copy a formula, paste just the resulting value. In Google Sheets, that exact sequence does nothing natively — Sheets uses Ctrl + Shift + V instead.

In Excel, Alt E S opens the Paste Special dialog — the hub for pasting values, formats, transposed data, and column widths. Google Sheets has the same options, but only behind the Edit menu with your mouse.

Copying a cell’s look — number format, colors, borders, font — without overwriting its contents is an everyday Excel move: Alt E S T. Google Sheets supports paste-format-only, but under a different shortcut most Excel users never find.

Flipping a row of headers into a column (or vice versa) is a paste-transpose. Excel users do it without thinking: Alt E S E. In Google Sheets the option exists, but only as a mouse-driven menu item.

Alt H O I — autofit column width — might be the most famous Alt sequence in Excel. Every analyst’s hands know it. Google Sheets has no equivalent shortcut: you have to grab the mouse and double-click a column boundary.

When you inherit a model, the first question about any formula is: where do these numbers come from? Excel answers with Trace Precedents. Google Sheets has nothing built in — you’re left reading formulas character by character.

Before you change or delete a cell, you need to know what breaks downstream. Excel’s Trace Dependents answers that. Google Sheets gives you no way to ask the question.

Goal Seek answers “what input gives me this output?” — what growth rate hits $10M revenue, what price gets to breakeven. In Excel it’s Alt A W G. In Google Sheets it’s a clunky add-on buried in the Extensions menu.

Every finance model ends with a sensitivity table: how does the output move as one or two inputs change? Excel generates these with Data > What-If Analysis > Data Table (Alt A W T). Google Sheets simply doesn’t have the feature.

Google Sheets counts every allocated row and column toward its 10 million-cell limit, even when most of the grid looks empty. A few oversized tabs can quietly consume millions of cells and eventually block new rows, columns, or imported data.

When a Google Sheets workbook starts lagging, the cause is usually buried among thousands of formulas: open-ended ranges, external imports, volatile functions, repeated lookups, large arrays, or deeply nested logic.

Highlighting cells is constant work in any model — inputs blue, checks green, flags yellow. Excel users open the fill palette with Alt H H. Google Sheets forces a trip to the toolbar every single time.

Finance formatting conventions live and die by font color: blue for hardcoded inputs, black for formulas. In Excel that’s Alt H F C without breaking flow. Sheets makes you mouse to the toolbar.

Merging header cells is a mouse-trip in Google Sheets: Format menu, then Merge cells, then the option. Excel users just type Alt H M and pick a merge mode.

Excel’s border sequences (Alt H B + a letter) cover every border style without touching the mouse. Google Sheets gives you a toolbar dropdown and a couple of obscure native combos.

Boxing a table with an outside border is the finishing touch on most schedules. Excel users type Alt H B S; in Sheets the equivalent is hidden behind a toolbar dropdown or the unrelated combo Alt + Shift + 7.

Freezing header rows is one of the first things you do in any big sheet. Excel’s Alt W F F freezes at the active cell. Google Sheets makes you open View > Freeze and pick from a list.

In Excel, Ctrl + Shift + = inserts cells, rows, or columns based on your selection — one of those shortcuts you use fifty times a day. Sheets uses a different combo and often routes you through a menu.

Deleting rows is the partner shortcut to inserting them — Ctrl + Minus in Excel. Google Sheets uses Ctrl + Alt + − instead, which Excel hands never find on their own.

Pasted data drags its formatting with it, and suddenly your clean sheet is a patchwork of fonts and colors. Excel users wipe it with Alt H E F. Sheets technically has Ctrl + \, but the Excel sequence is what your hands type.

Ctrl + Shift + L is the Excel reflex for slapping filters onto a data table. Type it in Google Sheets and nothing happens — Sheets wants you to find Data > Create a filter in the menu.

Accounting format — left-aligned currency symbols, decimal alignment, negatives in parentheses — is the standard for financial statements. Excel applies it with Alt H A N. Google Sheets hides it inside Format > Number > Custom.

Finance formatting convention is universal: hardcoded inputs blue, formulas black, links to other sheets green. In Excel, plugins like Macabacus apply it in one keystroke. Google Sheets gives you nothing — every input gets colored by hand.

Number formatting is the highest-frequency task in any model — commas here, decimals there, parentheses on negatives. Excel plugin users cycle formats with one repeated keystroke instead of digging through menus. Sheets makes you visit Format > Number over and over.