Excel shortcut to go back to previous cell (last position)

Question

There is a cool shortcut to go to a precedent cell: ctrl+[
This takes you to the source of your data in a cell that is linked from another worksheet for example.

I'm trying to find a shortcut that will take me back to the original cell that I was viewing. Doesn't seem to exist. Anyone?

Solution 1

Either of the following sets of keystrokes will take you back to the original cell:

• F5, Enter
• Ctrl+G, Enter

F5 and Ctrl+G are shortcuts to bring up the "Go To" dialogue box. The dialogue box will be pre-populated with the address of the original cell, and you can press Enter to go there.

Solution 2

Press F5

In the new window, click Special.

From here, click on Last Cell and then press enter.

Or, if you want keyboard then it's F5 ALT+ S and then another S and then Enter

The above could easily be assigned to a keyboard mapping tool like AUTOHOTKEY so it would be a single instruction.

Solution 3

I think Ctrl + ] works, but only if you have the target cell still selected and it will select all dependants of that cell, not just the one you got there from.

Solution 4

You could make a macro to do this.

First you would want to create a macro that runs when "ctrl+[" is run that remembers your current worksheet and cell, and then runs the usual command that jumps you to the source (to find this out, try recording a macro when you push the ctrl+[ and see what command is used). Now that you're position is saved, you can create a second macro with hotkey of your choosing that will grab the saved worksheet and position and jump to that spot.

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Comments

[Andi Mohr]

Good tip! However, this only appears to work as long as the dependent cell is on the same worksheet.

[Levi]

Just to save anyone else trying this - it takes you to the final (last) cell of the used range, not the cell that you were previously in.

[yannick1976]

Doesn't seem to work in Excel for Mac

[Levi]

@yannick1976 You're probably right. I was only talking about the Windows version - don't have a Mac and my searching about it just now didn't give an answer one way or the other.