Strikethrough Shortcut Excel
Strikethrough is an excel formatting feature that puts a horizontal line through a cell’s value.
What is Strikethrough in Excel?
Strikethrough is an Excel formatting effect that puts a horizontal line through a cell’s value. This effect is used to mark a task as complete, or a value as deleted. The strikethrough feature works for both text and numerical values.
Although using the strikethrough gives the impression that a cell’s value is deleted, it does not change the actual value of a cell. It is merely a formatting feature for display purposes.
For example, in the image below, we have a sum of value 1 and value 2 to reach a total. In row #2, there are regular values, while in row #3 there are values with the strikethrough effect. Despite this difference, both have a total of 30 in column C. As such, the value of a cell does not change despite the visual effect of a strikethrough.
What is the Strikethrough shortcut in Excel?
The Excel shortcut for strikethrough is Ctrl + 5 both on Mac and Windows.
Another way to apply the strikethrough effect is by using the format dialogue box. For this, on Windows, press Ctrl + 1 to open up the format cells dialogue box. Then under the font ribbon, tick on the strikethrough effect on the bottom left. See the image below for further reference.
On a Mac, press Command + 1 to open the dialogue box. Then go to the font ribbon, and tick on the strikethrough box to activate it.
How to remove strikethrough in Excel
To remove the strikethrough feature in Excel, press Ctrl + 5 on the cell currently with the strikethrough feature. This applies to both Mac and Windows.
Alternatively, you can remove the strikethrough by going to the format cells dialogue box and unticking the strikethrough effect. To open the format cells dialogue box, press Ctrl + 1 on Windows or Command + 1 on Mac.
How to strikethrough only part of a cell
To strikethrough only part of a cell’s value, first, only select the part you want to strikethrough. For this, you can navigate through the cell’s characters by pressing the shift + arrow keys, or by using the mouse. Once selected, press Ctrl + 5 to apply the strikethrough effect.
Strikethrough multiple cells on Excel
To strikethrough multiple Excel cells at the same time, first, select the relevant cells by using a mouse or using the shift + arrow keys. Once you have the relevant cells selected, press Ctrl + 5 to strikethrough all of them with one click. The format cells dialogue box option is also applicable here once the relevant cells have been selected.
Example of using Strikethrough in Excel
The strikethrough feature is often used in to-do lists. In the example below, you can see we have tasks listed on a to-do list with their status ranging from pending to done. When a task is complete, we apply the strikethrough feature to show users that the task is finished.
As for the dropdown list with options for both done and pending, that is a feature in Excel called data validation. This allows you to create dropdown lists ranging from custom values to specific cell ranges.
Strikethrough Shortcut Word
To use the strikethrough feature on Word, first, select the text you want to strikethrough, then press the strikethrough button as shown in the image below.
If you prefer to use your keyboard, the shortcut for Windows is Alt, H, 4. For a Mac, the shortcut is Command + Shift + X.
Pressing the shortcut once will apply the strikethrough. Pressing it a second time will remove the strikethrough effect.
Additional Resources
If you found this article helpful, consider checking out our Excel for Business & Finance Course where we cover all the Excel fundamentals you’ll need to perform in any business or finance role.
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