To add strikethrough in Excel, select the cells and press Ctrl+5 on Windows, or Shift+Command+X on a Mac. You can also open the Format Cells dialog with Ctrl+1, go to the Font tab, and select the Strikethrough check box under Effects. Either way, you draw a line through the text, which is a common way to show an edit or a finished task.
Strikethrough is font formatting, so it changes how the text looks and nothing more: the cell keeps its value, and a struck-out number still counts in every total. This guide walks through the shortcut, the Format Cells route, why the desktop ribbon has no one-click button for it, striking part of a cell versus the whole thing, and what strikethrough leaves untouched.
How do I add strikethrough in Excel?
The quickest way is the keyboard. Select the cell or cells and press Ctrl+5 on Windows. On a Mac the same command is Shift+Command+X. Microsoft lists this shortcut as “Apply or remove strikethrough formatting”, so it works as a toggle: press it a second time and the line comes back off.
If you would rather use the dialog, select the cells, then open Format Cells. The Font group’s Dialog Box Launcher opens it, and so does Ctrl+1 (Command+1 on a Mac). On the Font tab, under Effects, is the setting you want: “Select the Strikethrough check box to draw a line through selected text or numbers.” Select OK, and the line appears. To take it off later, come back to the same box and clear it.
Why isn’t Strikethrough a button on the ribbon?
On the desktop, the Home tab’s Font group gives you one-click buttons for Bold, Italic, and Underline, but not strikethrough. Microsoft’s own steps route it through the group’s Dialog Box Launcher instead, which is why Ctrl+5 is the fast path.
If you want a click target rather than a shortcut, add it to the Quick Access Toolbar: select the toolbar’s dropdown, choose More Commands, set the Choose commands from list to Commands Not in the Ribbon, find Strikethrough, and select Add. After that it sits in the toolbar as a one-click button.
Excel for the web is the exception. There, Strikethrough is its own button in the Home tab’s Font group, so you select the cells and click it, and click it again to remove the line.
Can I strike through part of a cell?
Yes. Selecting the whole cell strikes everything in it. To mark only some of the words, double-click the cell (or select it and press F2) to start editing, drag across just the characters you want, then apply Ctrl+5 or select the Strikethrough check box. Only the selected characters get the line, and the rest of the cell stays plain, because the setting draws through whatever text is selected.
Does strikethrough change the cell’s value?
No, and this is the part people most often get wrong. Strikethrough is a font effect, so it changes only how the text is drawn. It does not change, hide, or remove what the cell holds. A struck-out number is still that number to Excel, so it stays in every SUM, average, and total that references it; struck-out text is still the same text to a lookup, a filter, or a COUNT. Drawing a line through a value marks it for a human reader, not for the workbook.
That makes strikethrough a display setting in the same family as wrapping text: both change appearance while the stored value stays exactly as it was. If your goal is to actually remove finished rows rather than mark them, you have to delete them. And if you want rows to strike themselves out the moment they are flagged as done, that belongs to a conditional formatting rule, which applies the formatting for you based on the cell’s contents, rather than a line you draw by hand.
The short version
- Add it: select the cells and press Ctrl+5 on Windows, or Shift+Command+X on a Mac. It is a toggle, so the same keys remove it.
- Dialog route: open Format Cells (Ctrl+1, or the Font group’s Dialog Box Launcher), then on the Font tab select the Strikethrough check box under Effects.
- No ribbon button on the desktop: unlike Bold, Italic, and Underline, strikethrough is not a one-click button there. Add it to the Quick Access Toolbar from Commands Not in the Ribbon if you want one. In Excel for the web it already is a Font-group button.
- Part of a cell: double-click to edit, select just those characters, then apply the format.
- It only styles the text: strikethrough never changes, hides, or removes the value, so a struck-out number still feeds every formula and total. To remove rows you have to delete them; to strike them automatically, use conditional formatting.
