How to Strikethrough in Excel: Shortcut, Menu and To-Do Lists

There's something deeply satisfying about crossing an item off a list, and Excel lets you do it on screen. Strikethrough draws a line through a cell's contents without deleting them, which is perfect for to-do lists, finished orders, or showing an old number next to a corrected one.

Here's the slightly odd thing: in Excel for Windows there's no Strikethrough button on the Home tab, unlike Word. You get there through a shortcut or a dialog box. I'll show you both, then how to make the line appear automatically when a task is marked done, and why Excel sometimes adds strikethrough all by itself.

The strikethrough shortcut in Excel

Microsoft's list of Excel keyboard shortcuts gives Ctrl + 5 for applying or removing strikethrough.

1. Select the cell, or a range of cells.
2. Press Ctrl + 5.

Press Ctrl + 5 again on the same cells and the line disappears. It's a toggle, so it's the fastest way to tick things off as you go. Use the 5 on the main number row, not the number pad.

Adding strikethrough from the Format Cells box in Excel

If you prefer menus, Microsoft's help describes this route:

1. Select the cells you want to cross out.
2. On the Home tab, in the Font group, select Font Settings, the small arrow in the bottom-right corner of the group. The Format Cells dialog opens.
3. On the Font tab, tick Strikethrough.
4. Select OK.

To remove it, open the same box, untick Strikethrough and select OK. Right-clicking a cell and choosing Format Cells takes you to the same place.

Crossing out only part of a cell's text

Strikethrough doesn't have to cover the whole cell. If you want to show a change in a note, like crossing out an old date and leaving the new one:

1. Double-click the cell to start editing.
2. Highlight just the words you want to cross out.
3. Press Ctrl + 5, or open Format Cells and tick Strikethrough.
4. Press Enter.

Only the highlighted words get the line. This works for typed text. It won't work inside a formula result, because the result isn't text you can edit character by character.

Automatic strikethrough for finished tasks in Excel

Microsoft's conditional formatting help says a rule can apply a font format when a cell meets a condition, and strikethrough is one of the font effects. That means you can make rows cross themselves out when you mark them done.

1. Add a Status column, say column C, where you type Done when a task is finished.
2. Select the task cells, for example A2 to A10.
3. Go to Home, Conditional Formatting, New Rule.
4. Choose Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
5. Type =C2="Done".
6. Select Format, go to the Font tab, tick Strikethrough and select OK twice.

Now typing Done in column C strikes through the matching task automatically. It pairs beautifully with checkboxes in Excel: swap the formula to =C2=TRUE and ticking the box crosses out the task.

Why Excel shows strikethrough you didn't add

This one confuses plenty of people. Microsoft explains that in Manual or Partial calculation mode, Excel can show a strikethrough on a formula cell whose data has changed but hasn't been recalculated yet. It calls these stale values, and the line is a warning that the number isn't reliable yet.

• Press F9, or select Calculate Now on the Formulas tab, and the line disappears once Excel recalculates.
• Selecting a stale cell shows a warning icon with options to calculate or switch to automatic calculation.
• You can turn the formatting off under Formulas, Calculation Options, Format Stale Values, but Microsoft recommends leaving it on, because turning it off doesn't update the numbers.

If you can't remove a strikethrough with Ctrl + 5, check whether the cell holds a formula and the workbook is set to manual calculation. That's almost always the reason.

Strikethrough on Excel for Mac and the web

Microsoft's help page about strikethrough was written for Excel for the web, and the route is the same as on Windows: Home, the Font Settings button in the Font group, then the Strikethrough box in the Format Cells dialog. On a Mac, right-clicking a cell and choosing Format Cells takes you to the same Font tab. I haven't listed a Mac keyboard shortcut here, because Microsoft's shortcut list I used covers Windows, and menus vary by app version.

Strikethrough in Excel at a glance

Method	How	Best for
Keyboard shortcut	Ctrl + 5	Quick ticking off
Format Cells	Home, Font Settings, Strikethrough	Mouse users
Part of a cell	Edit the cell, highlight words, Ctrl + 5	Showing edits in notes
Conditional formatting	New Rule with a font strikethrough	Automatic to-do lists

Using strikethrough in shared business spreadsheets

In a shared workbook, strikethrough is a gentle way to show what's changed without losing the history. I'd use it for crossed-off leads, discontinued stock lines that you still want on record, and finished jobs on a team task list. If your team also keeps lists in Google's apps, checkbox lists in Google Sheets are worth a look for the same kind of tracking.

One caution: strikethrough is purely visual. Formulas like SUM still count a crossed-out number, so if you want it ignored in totals, move it or mark it in a status column that your formulas can check.

Frequently asked questions

What is the shortcut for strikethrough in Excel?

Microsoft lists Ctrl + 5 for applying or removing strikethrough. Select the cells first, and press it again to take the line off.

Why is there no strikethrough button in Excel?

Excel for Windows keeps it in the Format Cells dialog. On the Home tab, select Font Settings in the Font group, then tick Strikethrough on the Font tab.

Can Excel cross out a task automatically when it's done?

Yes. Use a conditional formatting formula rule, such as =C2="Done", and choose strikethrough on the Font tab of the rule's Format box.

Why do some of my Excel cells have strikethrough I didn't add?

Microsoft says Excel marks stale formula cells with a strikethrough in Manual or Partial calculation mode. Press F9 to recalculate and the line goes.

Does strikethrough remove a number from a total?

No. It only changes how the cell looks. Formulas such as SUM still include the crossed-out value.