Microsoft Excel is all about working with data. Its interface includes ribbons, taskbars, and sheets. The sheet is the workspace for your data and has cells separated by gridlines.
Now, moving around the sheet from cell to cell or selecting one or more cells is not as easy as it seems. Most people use a mouse and that takes a lot of time and effort. Ask any trusted Excel expert and he will tell you that the first step to mastering excel is to use the keyboard as much as possible to save time.
So here are some cool keyboard-related cell selection tips.
Note: We used MS Excel 2013 for the tutorial. However, the tips should apply to all other versions.
1. Change the behavior of the Enter key
By default when you press Enter, the cursor will move to the cell directly below the current selection. For example, if you are at A3 and you press Enter, the selection will change to B3. Not good enough to match your style? You can change it to right, left or up.
To do that navigate to File -> Preferences. Then choose High level above Excel Options window. Below editing options you can choose the desired value for the action After pressing Enter, move the selection.
2. Expand selection
When you need to select a range, you do it by dragging the mouse or holding Shift and clicking.
Two easier ways are:
- Hold down the Shift key and use the arrow keys.
- Press F8 to enter Extended Mode. Then just use the arrow keys without worrying about holding down the Shift key.
3. Add to Selection
How do you select non-adjacent cells? I guess you hold down the Ctrl key and then use the mouse click. Holding down the Ctrl key is tiring if you need to select multiple cells. An easier way is to lock into Add to Selection mode by pressing Shift + F8.
Then there’s no need to hold down the Ctrl key. Just click on any cell you want to select. When done, press Shift + F8 again to exit back to normal mode.
4. Go to active cell or range
When you are working with a lot of data, you tend to scroll all over the sheet. And then you forget the active cell or the current selection. This is the easiest way out.
Simply pressing Ctrl + Backspace will take you back to the current cell.
5. Go to cell by reference
If you know which cell you want to move the selection to, you shouldn’t waste time scrolling. Instead, just press Ctrl + G to launch the go to dialog. Enter the cell reference label and press Enter.
6. Ctrl + Arrow Keys
This combination is the easiest way to navigate to the top, bottom, left, and right extremes on the sheet. The keys are Ctrl + [up, down, left, right] Corresponding arrow.
Conclusion
That’s all we have on our list. You don’t think they are cool? I think so and I feel that they will save you a lot of work with your next Excel sheet. Try them out and let us know your experience.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
