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

Discovering the RGB Value of a Custom Text Color

Word allows you to easily change the color of the text in your document. If you get a document from someone else, you may ...

Discover More

Selecting a Graphic Behind a Text Box

How to select a graphic that is obscured by a text box can be perplexing. Here's an overview of the different ways you ...

Discover More

Creating Tent Cards

If you are planning a dinner party or a meeting where guests need to be seated at tables, you may want to create tent ...

Discover More

Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2019 For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Ensuring Standard Units During Data Entry

Need to make sure that information entered in a worksheet is always in a given unit of measurement? It's not as easy of a ...

Discover More

Forcing Editing to Be Done in a Cell

Excel allows you to edit your cell contents in two places. What if you want to limit where editing occurs, so it can only ...

Discover More

Pasting Excel Data within Word's Page Margins

The programs in the Microsoft Office suite are designed to work with each other easily. Sometimes there can be hiccups ...

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 eight minus 6?

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.