You probably work with Excel a lot. You know Alt-Key shortcuts are vital to productivity.

For the first time, this menubar app lets you get them in Mac Excel for just US$36.

7 day free trial, no credit card required
Supports Macs running Catalina and Office 365/2019/2016

Works natively on Mac

No Bootcamp, Parallels or VMWare required.

Our customers ↑

Used by investment bankers, consultants, accountants and data scientists at

I just downloaded your software and would like to say thank you so much! At work I use Excel on a PC and have always missed the functionality on my personal Mac. You are a life-changer.

Sam J., Business Analyst (Consulting)

This is the most convenient tool for Mac users to navigate the Excel ribbon. It’s a must-have for heavy Excel users who strive for excellence, efficiency and superior performance.

Evgeni Radilov, Valuation Modeler and Risk Officer

Interested in buying multiple licenses for your department?
Drop us an email at acceleratorkeys@outlook.com.

Features ↑

Accelerator Keys supports Macs running macOS 10.15 (Catalina) and has been tested with Office 365, 2019 and 2016.

Get good at Excel, really fast

We use Apple’s assistive features to control Mac Excel and simulate Window’s alt-key shortcuts, without inconvenient or expensive workarounds. It's a better way to use Excel.

Powerful shortcuts at your fingertips

We support 250+ of the most frequently used alt-key shortcuts. This includes the entire Home tab (e.g. font sizes, colours) and most of the Insert, View, Formulas and Data tabs.

Unobtrusive convenience

Accelerator Keys runs quietly in your menu-bar. When Excel is open, the app watches for keystrokes, and uses the Accessibility API to display hotkeys and control Excel.

Why we built this ↑

Mac users of Excel have struggled with the lack of alt-key shortcuts for the past 10 years with only painful workarounds available (see Reddit and Microsoft's forum).

macOS Catalina's increased support for accessibility features recently enabled a new way to control Mac Excel. Mac users can now use alt-key shortcuts without spending a lot or inconvenient setups. Give it a try!

Issues with current workarounds

  • Bootcamp: Inconvenient to switch between Windows and Mac partitions, when most of our apps are on the Mac partition. Read-only access to Mac files from Windows partition without paid third-party software. Requires an additional Office license (US$150 per year).
  • Running a VM (e.g. Parallels): Laggy and consumes a lot of CPU. Some keyboard shortcuts still don't work properly. And this isn't cheap — Parallels costs US$77, and you may need an additional Office license.
  • Buying a separate PC: Technically this works…but surely we can do better than buying a new computer?

FAQs ↑

Have a question, or just want to say hi? You can always reach us at acceleratorkeys@outlook.com.

  • How can I use Mac Excel like I use Excel on Windows?

    • First, download Accelerator Keys and follow the instructions in the installer.

    The key is to drag Accelerator Keys into the Applications folder to enable automatic updates, and to grant accessibility access so that Accelerator Keys can control Excel. The Option key on your Mac keyboard now works like an alt-key, and pressing it in Mac Excel gives you access to accelerator shortcuts.

    Then, change the top row of keys on your Mac to work as standard function keys without holding the Fn key. This enables you to hit F2 in Mac Excel and edit a cell more conveniently, or F9 to refresh the workbook.

    Lastly, use the Cmd Key instead of the Ctrl Key for shortcuts that used the Ctrl key in Windows (e.g. Ctrl-D, Ctrl-R to drag formulas).

  • Missing shortcuts?

    • If you are a paying user, you can submit requests for additional controls to be added by emailing acceleratorkeys@outlook.com. These will be in the next update — barring technical difficulties.

  • Why do I need automatic updates?

    • The app needs to be updated each time Microsoft updates Excel Office 365. This allows the app to find controls in the Excel ribbon accurately (e.g. if button labels or the ribbon layout has changed), and let users control them through Accelerator Keys.

  • Does this replicate all the functionality of Windows ribbon shortcuts?

    • It replicates 250+ of the most-commonly used shortcuts, and we add additional shortcuts based on requests from paying customers. There are two known limitations to our approach.

    First, Accelerator Keys does not currently work when Excel is in full-screen mode. The app works by creating an overlay on top of Excel. When Excel is in full-screen mode, it isn't possible to render an overlay on the same screen.

    Accelerator Keys currently cannot control Excel buttons that aren't visible on the screen. This means if you have shrunk the Excel screen and some buttons are hidden, alt-key shortcuts will not be available for those.