MS-Excel / General Formatting

Moving Around in a Worksheet

Going from place to place gets progressively more difficult as a worksheet gets larger. Luckily for you, Excel offers keyboard shortcuts for jumping around. Table below describes these keyboard shortcuts. (If the keyboard shortcuts in Table below don't work on your machine, Excel to adopt the keyboard shortcuts of Lotus 1-2-3, another spreadsheet program. To remedy the problem, click the Office button, choose Excel Options, select the Advanced category in the Excel Options dialog box, and deselect the Transition Navigation Keys check box near the bottom of the screen.)

Keyboard Shortcuts for Getting Around in Worksheets
PressTo Move the Selection
HomeTo column A
Ctrl+HomeTo cell A1, the first cell in the worksheet
Ctrl+EndTo the last cell in the last row with data in it
←, →, ↑, ↓To the next cell
Ctrl+←, →, ↑, ↓In one direction toward the nearest cell with data in it or to the first or last cell in the column or row
Page Up or Page DownUp or down one screen's worth of rows
Alt+Page Up or Alt+Page DownLeft or right one screen's worth of columns
Ctrl+Page Up or Ctrl+Page DownBackward or forward through the workbook, from worksheet to worksheet

In addition to pressing keys, you can use these techniques to get from place to place in a worksheet:

  • Scroll bars: Use the vertical and horizontal scroll bars to move to different areas. Drag the scroll box to cover long distances. To cover long distances very quickly, hold down the Shift key as you drag the scroll box on the vertical scroll bar.
  • Scroll wheel on the mouse: If your mouse is equipped with a scroll wheel, turn the wheel to quickly scroll up and down.
  • Name box: Enter a cell address in the Name box and press Enter to go to the cell.
  • The Go To command: On the Home tab, click the Find & Select button, and choose Go To on the drop-down list (or press Ctrl+G or F5). As shown in Figure below, you see the Go To dialog box. Enter a cell address in the Reference box and click OK. Cell addresses you've already visited with the Go To command are already listed in the dialog box. Click the Special button to open the Go To Special dialog box and visit a formula, comment, or other esoteric item.

    Find & Select Button

  • The Find command: On the Home tab, click the Find & Select button, and choose Find on the drop-down list. Enter the data you seek in the Find What box and click the Find Next button.

To scroll to the active cell if you no longer see it on-screen, press Ctrl+Backspace.

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