Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Undoing an Edit.

Undoing an Edit

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 6, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


1

It happens to the best of us. You may delete the wrong value, replace the wrong formula, or enter something incorrectly. In short, you make a mistake. Excel allows you to undo almost any of your editing actions. The easiest way to undo an edit or formatting change is to press Ctrl+Z. Excel very helpfully undoes whatever it was you just did.

Excel also provides an Undo tool at the upper-left of the Excel program window, just above the leftmost tabs of the ribbon. This tool looks like a curved arrow pointing backward—to the left. If you click on the tool, it is the same as pressing Ctrl+Z. If you click on the tool and you hear a "ding," it means there are no actions to undo. If there are more than one actions that can be undone, click on the down-arrow to the right of the Undo tool and you can see the various actions that you can undo.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12361) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Undoing an Edit.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Extracting Targeted Records from a List

When working with large amounts of data, you may have a need to extract just the information that meets the criteria you ...

Discover More

Editing a Comment Close to Its Cell

Have you ever chosen to edit a comment, only to find that the comment is quite a ways from the cell with which it is ...

Discover More

Creating Multiple Blank Documents in One Step

Word makes it easy to create a new, blank document. What if you want to create more than one document at a time, however? ...

Discover More

Program Successfully in Excel! This guide will provide you with all the information you need to automate any task in Excel and save time and effort. Learn how to extend Excel's functionality with VBA to create solutions not possible with the standard features. Includes latest information for Excel 2024 and Microsoft 365. Check out Mastering Excel VBA Programming today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Quickly Filling a Column

Excel has a great (and little known) shortcut for filling a column with information. It comes in very handy when you need ...

Discover More

Limiting Input to a Format

When setting up a worksheet for others to use, you might want to make some limitations on what can be entered in certain ...

Discover More

Finding Unused Names

After months or years of naming things (such as cell ranges), you may find your workbook cluttered with a bunch of names ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 0 + 1?

2022-08-06 09:49:53

J. Woolley

It is worth noting that most macros destroy the Undo stack and cannot be undone unless specifically programmed to add a procedure to the Undo stack.


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.