Panes & editors
These shortcuts are contextual: each one works only while its window, pane, or editor has keyboard focus. That is why the same chord can mean different things in different surfaces — only the focused one ever sees the key.
Focus decides everything on this page
Unlike the global shortcuts, nothing here fires from the grid. Click into the pane or window first. When focus is in a text field inside one of these surfaces, the keys that type text behave normally; the command shortcuts below apply to the surface itself.
TrustLens
Active when: the TrustLens window is focused. TrustLens ships this exact list in‑product — press ? or F1 inside it to see it.
Navigation
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Alt+← | Back | Through your trace history. |
Alt+→ | Forward | |
Alt+↑ | Jump to step | Commits a Jump to Step preview only when its target is already in your breadcrumb path; use Enter to commit any other preview. |
Ctrl+Home | Go to root | The cell TrustLens opened on. |
Alt+E | Toggle the Formula Editor | Opens / closes the embedded editor. |
Alt+P | Begin Reference Pick in the editor | Then click a cell to insert its reference. |
Regions & panels
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
F6 / Shift+F6 | Next / previous region | Move focus between the major areas. |
Tab / Shift+Tab | Next / previous control | Standard control traversal. |
Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab | Next / previous details panel | Cycle the detail tabs. |
Diagram, lists & preview
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Ctrl+Shift+F | Fit diagram to view | When the diagram has focus. |
Ctrl+Shift+P | Prune active path | When the diagram has focus. |
Arrow keys, Home/End, PgUp/PgDn, Space, Enter | Move and expand within the diagram | See Flow Diagram for the exact movement. |
Enter | Activate the selected list row | In a list region. |
Enter / Esc | Commit / dismiss a preview | While a reference preview is showing. |
? / F1 | Show this shortcut list |
When the zoom control has focus, the arrow keys adjust zoom by 5%, Page Up/Page Down by 10%, and Home/End go to minimum / maximum zoom.
Formula Editor
Active when: the embedded Formula Editor has focus — it appears inside both TrustLens and CalcScope.
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Ctrl+Enter | Commit the formula to the cell | Writes to the workbook and clears Excel’s native undo. |
Esc | Revert / discard the edit, or cancel a reference pick | |
Ctrl+I | Beautify the formula | Indent / pretty‑print the staged text. |
Ctrl+M | Minify the formula | Collapse to one line. |
Ctrl+L | Re‑run lint / parse | Refresh diagnostics. |
Ctrl+Space | Show autocomplete | Function / name suggestions. |
Ctrl+T | Toggle Trace mode | |
F4 | Cycle A1 reference anchors | Absolute / mixed / relative ($). |
F5 | Preview the staged formula | Only if enabled in Settings. |
F12 | Jump Excel to the reference under the caret | |
Ctrl+Click | Jump Excel to the clicked reference | Mouse + modifier. |
Formula Explorer
Active when: the Formula Explorer pane (or its outline grid) has focus. The action‑strip keys run the toolbar buttons for the selected row, so each one only fires when that button is enabled — which depends on the selected row and on whether you’re looking at precedents or dependents.
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Alt+U | Explain the selected row | Explain Use (precedents) or Explain Formula (dependents). |
Alt+S | Show uses of the selected precedent | Precedents view only. |
Alt+T | Trace | Trace Upstream (precedents) or Trace Downstream (dependents). |
Alt+L | Open the selected row in TrustLens | |
Alt+O / F2 | Open the detail pane for the selected row | Side‑by‑side review in a second pane. |
Ctrl+Shift+E | Explain the selected row | Same as Alt+U; this is the focused‑pane case of the global Ctrl+Shift+E. |
Esc | Dismiss the current local state | Closes an inline panel / clears selection state. |
In the outline grid (the precedent / dependent tree):
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Enter | Expand the row, or activate it if it has no children | |
Ctrl+Enter | Expand the row | |
Space | Expand / collapse the row | When the row can expand. |
Flow Diagram
Active when: a Flow Diagram has focus — in TrustLens or on Formula Explorer’s Flow Diagram tab. Movement follows the dependency structure.
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
↑ | Select the parent (the node that consumes this one) | |
↓ | Select the first precedent (a node this one reads) | |
← / → | Select the previous / next sibling | |
Home / End | Root node / last visible node | |
Page Up / Page Down | Previous / next node in layout order | |
Space | Expand / collapse the selected node | Selects the root first if nothing is selected. |
Enter | Activate the selected node | Navigates Excel to that cell. |
CalcScope
Active when: the CalcScope window is focused.
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Alt+E | Toggle the Step Evaluator | The execution‑order view. |
Alt+W | Toggle the what‑if sliders | An in‑memory sandbox — writes nothing to the workbook. |
Alt+A | Toggle Explain | The plain‑English calculation explanation. |
Ctrl+F | Open Find | Search the breakdown rows. |
Ctrl+C | Copy the formula text | Preempts the grid’s default cell copy. |
Ctrl+Shift+P | Copy the breakdown as a PNG | Markdown / RTF are on the footer Copy menu (no shortcut). |
F2 | Enter edit mode | Editing and committing writes the formula and clears Excel’s undo. |
Esc | Close Find / cancel an edit | Best‑effort only — see the caveat below. |
CalcScope and the Escape key
Excel’s host usually consumes Esc before CalcScope’s window sees it, so “Esc closes Find / cancels the edit” is not reliable. Use the find bar’s X to close Find and the Cancel button to leave edit mode — those always work.
Compare & Material Change Intelligence
Active when: the Output Delta / Material Change Intelligence explanation window is focused.
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
F5 | Run the explanation | Attributes the selected output’s change to ranked drivers. Only when the Analyze button is enabled. |
Ctrl+Enter / Shift+Enter | Run the explanation | From the output selector box. |
Esc | Close the window | Ignored while an analysis is running. |
Sensitivity & Worksheet Map
These surfaces are driven from the keyboard through their global chords rather than a dedicated in‑pane key map: open Sensitivity with Ctrl+Shift+S, and act on an open Worksheet Map pane with Ctrl+Shift+M (Analyze), Ctrl+Shift+G (navigate), and Ctrl+Shift+E (Export Map). All four are covered under Global shortcuts.
Some of these shortcuts change the workbook
Committing a formula edit in the Formula Editor (Ctrl+Enter) or in CalcScope (F2 then apply) writes the formula to the cell and clears Excel’s native undo stack. The CalcScope what‑if sliders (Alt+W), by contrast, write nothing — they are a pure in‑memory sandbox. See CalcScope and TrustLens for the full behavior.
Related
- Global shortcuts — the grid‑level chords, including the
Ctrl+Shift+Eprecedence. - TrustLens · CalcScope · Tracing & Flow Diagram — what these surfaces do.
- Material Change Intelligence — the Output Delta explanation.