How to Undo and Redo in Excel: All Methods and Shortcuts (2023)

Life has no Ctrl + Z but luckily, Microsoft Excel has! 😀

Mistakes are common and inevitable in Excel. To undo any of it, we press Ctrl + Z. To redo, we press Ctrl + Y.

The undo and redo buttons are ultimate life savers in Excel as they are for other programs 👍

You may probably know this already but there is still a lot to know about the Undo and Redo commands that you might not know of.

We’ll uncover it all in the next few minutes.

Let’s go! 🚀

How to undo in Excel

One of the methods how to undo Excel is by pressing the Undo button found on your Quick Access Toolbar. The Undo button is such an important command that it is one of the default commands on your Quick Access Toolbar 😀

There are several actions that you can undo like:

• Get data or formula back you just deleted from a cell
• Move a cell to its previous location after a move
• Resize a row or column you accidentally made too large or too small

And a whole lot more! But it does have its limitations, too.

When you hover over the Undo button in the Quick Access Toolbar, it will also show you the last action you’ve done 👀

So to undo an action, just click the Undo button and carry on like it never happened.

Or we can use our most popular (and life-saving) keyboard shortcut 😉

Shortcut for undo

Everybody knows the keyboard shortcut to undo an action.

Windows users can undo in Excel with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Z, while Mac users can press Command + Z.

Just like you can press the undo button as many times as you want to undo actions, you can press the keys repeatedly too.

Undo multiple actions

You won’t have to manually click the Undo icon many times or repeat pressing the Undo shortcut keys when you can undo multiple actions at the same time.

To do that…

1. Click the small drop-down arrow to the right of the Undo button in the Quick Access Toolbar.

Here, you’ll find all subsequent actions you’ve done.

2. Move your cursor down the list of previous actions until you’ve highlighted all the actions you want to undo.

At the bottom of the drop-down, the number of highlighted actions (actions you are going to undo) will be displayed.

3. Finally, click to perform the undo to multiple actions.

It’s that easy! 👍

But what if you didn’t mean for these actions to be undone? What can be done about it? 🤔

How to redo in Excel

To redo something you’ve undone, simply click the Redo button on your Quick Access Toolbar. It’s located beside the undo button.

The Redo button is only active when you have undone something in Excel.

Since we’ve undone something very recently, the Redo button is active.

Click the redo icon to undo the action that you have undone.

This is particularly helpful when you accidentally undo an action you shouldn’t have 😊

Shortcut for redo

If you are more comfortable using your keyboard, press Ctrl + Y to redo any action. For Mac users, press Command + Y.

You can press the redo button as many times as you want to undo the actions you’ve undone or you can press Ctrl + Y repeatedly if you want to undo many steps.

Or better yet redo multiple actions all at once. It’s easy as 1-2-3! 👌

1. Click the down arrow beside the Redo button.

2. Highlight the actions.

At the bottom of the drop-down, the number of highlighted actions will be displayed.

3. Finally, click to perform the redo to multiple actions.

Limitations of undo and redo

Undo and redo buttons can really save the day, but it’s not a substitute for regularly saving your work.

It has a couple of limitations too. There are just actions you can’t undo and actions that can’t be undone in Excel.

Here are some of the limitations of the Undo and Redo buttons:

• You can’t undo clicking menu items, saving files, and deleting sheets.
• You can’t redo an action unless that action was affected by an undo action.
• You can only undo/redo the last 100 actions and up to 20 of your last action in the Quick Access Toolbar.

💡 It’s important to know the limitations of commands and features in Excel so you can really make the most of them.

PRO TIP

When the Undo command isn’t enough to fix a mistake, prevent the loss of your work in Excel due to errors and crashes by using the Backup and Restore process. This is one of the best Excel tips 😉

That’s it – Now what?

It is with no doubt that Undo and Redo buttons are ultimate life savers in Excel. You can now also undo/redo many actions at the same time. What a way to save your data and save your time 😀

That’s exactly what Microsoft Excel is for! You can accomplish work faster and easier with its built-in tools and features. You just need to know how to make Excel work for you.

Get started now and make Excel work for you. Join my 30-minute free beginner course, where you’ll learn the basics of Excel in minutes 🚀

Other resources

Did you know that you can add more commands to your Quick Access Toolbar? Learn how to customize your Quick Access Toolbar here.

Do things easier and faster with Excel tips and hacks ⚡ Read our Best 11 Excel shortcuts (with examples) article to learn more.