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Undo and redo

CtrlZEditing & references

Step backward through your changes — and forward again if you went too far.

Difficulty

Beginner
Practice file

1What it does

Ctrl + Z undoes your last action, and pressing it repeatedly walks back through the history one step at a time; Ctrl + Y redoes what you just undid. The one thing to know: a macro (or in older versions, saving) can clear the undo stack — so save a copy before running anything you can't reverse, because Ctrl + Z won't bring it back.

2The shortcut

CtrlZ
  1. 1Press Ctrl + Z to undo the last change — again to keep stepping back.
  2. 2Press Ctrl + Y to redo a step you undid.
  3. 3Before running a macro, save a copy — it can wipe the undo history.

3Before → after

Press the shortcut to play it on a sample sheet.

or press the keys for real

Before — a bad edit sits in the cell

A — FieldB — Cash
1Bank balance9,999

Someone fat-fingered 9,999 into the cell. Ctrl + Z walks it back — press it repeatedly to keep stepping.

4When you use it

  • Back out of a mistaken edit or paste instantly.
  • Step back through several changes to a known-good state.
  • Redo a change you undid one step too far.

Want these moves already done for you? Wauvel's free tools download as branded, formula-driven Excel models — Tables, named ranges, and all.

Learn the moves here — or let Wauvel run them on your numbers.

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