KeyTips Explained: The Fastest Microsoft Office Keyboard Shortcuts You Already Have

Annabelle AlmerLast updated: 20 May 2026

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Wanna be a better, faster Office user? Impress your friends? Be the envy of women and men for miles around? Use simple keyboard shortcuts, called KeyTips, that you don’t have to memorize because they are on the screen. Instantly access Ribbon commands in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for Windows or Mac. Save time and never touch the mouse.

Simply press a few keys to accomplish tasks quickly, no matter where you are in an Office program.

KeyTips are in all versions of Office for Windows from Office 2007 onwards. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access … any Office app with a ribbon interface.

KeyTips have been in Office for Mac since late 2024 but it’s an optional feature that has to be turned on (Preferences | Accessibility)

Start by tapping (press and release) the Alt key (Option on Mac). KeyTips will appear showing the next key to press – for example Alt, H, 7, U to apply Sentence Case.

Basically, KeyTips are little boxes acting as shortcuts, which are over each command available. It’ll take some practice, but you will likely find in the end that you’ll be working faster than mouse clicking.

How to use KeyTips

Starting KeyTips is quick and easy, just press the Alt key (or Option) and release to bring up the little boxes on your ribbon.

Microsoft Word ribbon showing KeyTips letter labels over every tab and command after pressing Alt

Or in Excel

Microsoft Excel ribbon displaying KeyTips letter labels over each tab including Home, Insert and Formulas

Now press the letter shown in the KeyTip over the command that you want to use next, for example we’ve pressed the letter ‘F’ for the File Tab.

Depending on the letter you have pressed, you may find additional KeyTips to continue you on to the next commands.

For example in the File Tab, (Windows only) you can now choose between a whole bunch of different selections.

Microsoft Office File tab open with KeyTips letters shown next to Save, Print, Save As and other File menu options

Say we select the key ‘A’ for Save As, we’ll be brought to another set of KeyTips to choose from.

Microsoft Office Save As screen showing KeyTips letter shortcuts for OneDrive, This PC and Browse options

Basically you continue to press letters until you’ve reached the specific command you want to action.

Despite the all caps Keytip labels, the keypresses can be lower or upper case.

Want to hide the KeyTips? Simply press the Alt Key again and they’ll disappear or do some other action with the mouse or keyboard.

Go back a step with Escape

If you’ve made a mistake during your sequence of KeyTips, press the Esc key and you’ll go back one level (Windows only)

Keep typing, don’t wait

There’s no need to wait for the little boxes to appear (sometimes there’s a little delay). If you know the next letter/key to press, just press it and Office will react quickly.

If you start using Keytip shortcuts, it’s surprising how quickly you’ll learn common feature keystrokes.

KeyTips labelling or syntax

There’s no official way to describe a keytip sequence but there are two common methods; comma or spaces.

In Excel, change formatting to Percentage is listed as either:

Alt, H, P or Alt H P

The comma or space marks that the key is pressed and released, compared to the plus + sign which means to hold both keys down at the same time (e.g. Ctrl + B for Bold).

With KeyTips, the first step to choose a ribbon tab can be tap Alt then a letter (Alt, H) . In Office for Windows only, they can be combined ( Alt + H ).

Faster first keyboard shortcut

Which KeyTips should you attempt to remember? Well, you don’t exactly need to have good memory to execute KeyTips as the little boxes will prompt you each time. But the more you do it – the more it’ll become second nature to you.

It’s handy to remember the first keypresses which take you to a ribbon tab or the File menu.

Office for Windows – fast KeyTips

Here are some common commands that you’ll find work the same across all Office for Windows programs, such as PowerPoint, Excel, and Word. Use the key combinations together (hold down Alt while tapping F key) or one after another (tap and release the Alt key, then tap F ). They don’t work on Office for Mac.