Windows Mac
Ctrl[ ⌃[

About This Shortcut 

When you select a formula and use this shortcut, Excel will select cells that are directly referred to in the selected formula. The idea behind the word precedent in this case is “precede” or “before”…cells that come before.

Related videos

Excel Shortcuts for Go To Special

Shortcuts for Go To Special

In this video, we’ll take a look at some shortcuts for selecting “special cells”. Excel provides a dedicated dialog box to access special groups of cells, called “Go To Special”. To access this dialog with the keyboard, type Control + G, then click the Special button (or use Alt + S) on Windows. …
Excel How to trace formula relationships

How to trace formula relationships

In this video, we’ll look at how to quickly find formulas and trace how they are related to one another using the concept of precedents and dependents. Here we have a simple model that shows the expense of making coffee at home vs. buying coffee in a coffee shop. Let’s take a look through the …
Dave Bruns Profile Picture

AuthorMicrosoft Most Valuable Professional Award

Dave Bruns

Hi - I'm Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.