How to Go to Cell A1 in Excel: 7 Best Methods You Should Know

Do you scroll through your spreadsheet to reach a specific cell in Microsoft Excel, like cell A1?

Learn how to go to cell A1 in Excel using rapid methods and save time on scrolling on Excel.

An Excel worksheet could have thousands of columns and rows. Suppose, you’re working on a spreadsheet and have gone deep, and you’re in cell D15000. Now, you need to come back to cell A1, where you usually find your column headers. So, how do you do that?

Do you scroll up manually to cell A1 using the arrow keys or mouse scroll wheel? That could take minutes. Following this ritual, every time could waste hours of your workday. 

There are some quick methods, similar to just clicking a few Keys, that will be explained below. Keep reading!      

Go to Cell A1 with Ctrl Home

The most effortless method is to use the keyboard shortcut that instantly takes you to cell A1 without requiring you to modify the worksheet attributes.

Follow the steps below.

1. Go anywhere within the worksheet except the cell A1.
2. Now, press Ctrl and Home buttons on the keyboard together.
3. Excel will automatically take the cursor to cell A1.

That’s it! Your active cell is now in the top left cell of the sheet.

Go to Cell A1 with the Name Box

The Name Box is another handy option to navigate throughout the worksheet without using the mouse scroll wheel, arrow keys, or Page Up or Page Down keys.

Additionally, the Name Box is always at your fingertips.

You can find it on the left of the Excel Formula Bar. Once you have located the Name Box, try the following steps to go to cell A1 instantly from anywhere else on the spreadsheet: 

1. Click the drop-down arrow on the Name Box.
2. Type the cell address, A1, and hit Enter.
3. You will find the cursor on cell A1 instantly.   

Go to Cell A1 with a Hyperlink to A1 at the End of a Sheet

You can also create an on-sheet hyperlink to the cell address A1 to go to cell A1 by clicking that link.

Here are the steps you can try.

1. Copy-paste the column header of cell A1 where you want the hyperlink.
2. Press Ctrl + K together.
3. Click Place in This Document within the Insert Hyperlink dialogue box.
4. Now, you can either type the cell address to which you want the cursor to move or select it from a list of Defined Names. For this tutorial, we will simply type A1 in the Type the cell reference field. 
5. Click the OK button.

Excel should have created a hyperlink in the cell you have selected. Click the hyperlink, and Excel will shift the cursor to cell A1. 

Go to Cell A1 with the Go To Menu

The Go To command on Excel is another intuitive way to move the cursor to a cell or cell range of your choice.

Here is how you can do it.

1. Hit the function key F5 (hotkey Ctrl + G) to get the Go To dialogue box. You’ll find the function keys above the number key row. On certain laptops with the Fn key, you have to press Fn and then hit F5.
2. Type A1 in the Reference field and click OK.

Excel will immediately shift the cursor to cell A1.  

Go to Cell A1 with Named Ranges

You can also create Named Ranges to select one or more cells in just one click.

Here is how you can try this trick.

1. Select the cell or cell ranges for which you want to create a Named Range. In this tutorial, we will select cell A1.
2. Now, you can either copy the column header of cell A1 and use it as a Named Range text or type anything else that you will easily remember. We will copy the column header for now.
3. Now, click the content of the Name Box. Excel should highlight the content in blue. It means you can now edit the Name Box content for the cell A1.

4. Copy and paste the column header name here. As explained earlier, you can also give the cell A1 another name that you prefer. It is crucial to note that you can not insert any space between two words in the Name Box. 
5. Hit Enter to assign a Defined Name to the cell A1.

6. Now, whenever you are deep into the spreadsheet and need to go to cell A1, simply click the Name Box drop-down and select the Defined Name for cell A1. Excel shifts the cursor there as soon as you do this.

Go to Cell A1 with VBA

If you are automating many functions on the Excel worksheet using Excel VBA, then you can use a small VBA script to go to cell A1 instantly when you run the code. 

If you have not activated VBA on your worksheet yet, follow these steps.

1. Go to File and then select Save As on the Excel worksheet.
2. Now choose a location to save the file, like Downloads. 

3. In the next dialog box, change the Save as type to Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook.
4. Click Save to create a new Macro-activated copy of the same workbook.
5. Again click File and then go to Options.

6. Select Customize Ribbon and checkmark the Developer tab under the Main Tabs column.
7. Click OK to save the changes.

You have successfully activated Macro and added the Developer tab on the Excel Ribbon so far. Now, follow these steps to run the following VBA script to go to cell A1.

Sub SelectCell()
Range("A1").Select
End Sub

1. On the Excel Ribbon, go to the Developer tab and click Visual Basic. Alternatively, you can hit Alt + F11.
2. Now, double-click ThisWorkbook to open a VBA script editor.
3. Copy and paste the above script into the editor as is.
4. Click Save.
5. Now, click the Run Sub icon, the play button, or press F5 to run the VBA program.

Instantly, Excel will move the mouse cursor to cell A1.     

Go to Cell A1 With Office Scripts

If you are using the web version of Microsoft Excel through Microsoft 365 subscription and want to automate tasks like the standalone Excel app, you can not use VBA. 

Because the Excel web does not allow VBA scripting. Instead, it lets you run Office Script from the Automate tab on the Excel Ribbon.

Here is how you can use an Office Script code to select cell A1 or any other cell or cell range of choice instantly.

function main(workbook: ExcelScript.Workbook) {
let selectedSheet = workbook.getActiveWorksheet()
selectedSheet.getRange("A1").select()
}

1. Open your Excel worksheet on the Excel web app.
2. On the Excel Ribbon, click Automate.
3. Click New Script to open the Office Script Code Editor.
4. Copy the TypeScript code mentioned above and paste it into the Code Editor.
5. Select Save script. 
6. Now, place the cursor in a blank place where you want to add a button to run the Office Script.
7. Click More options or the horizontal three dots menu of the Code Editor.
8. A context menu will open. Select Add button.
9. Right-click on the button and select Edit Text to customize the button name.

That’s it! The Office Script and its button are ready. You can left-click the button once to execute the code. The Excel worksheet will automatically select cell A1.

You can place any other cell reference or range in place of A1 to automatically select the required cell or cell ranges.

Conclusions

Microsoft developed Excel thoughtfully to let you become creative while working on spreadsheets.

It has many shortcuts, tips, tricks, and methods to do one task in many ways. Ultimately, it enables you to analyze and visualize data quickly and in error-free ways.

Now you know several effortless and smart methods to move around ranges and cells in an Excel worksheet.

You’ve learned the methods to go to cell A1, but you can apply them to other cells, ranges, or data tables.

Do you use any of these techniques to get back to cell A1? Let me know in the comments!