Procedures for Selecting Cells
Before going over some of the fancier and more grandiose procedures for selecting cells in a worksheet, you might want to review the two basic procedures for using a mouse to select single cell ranges in the worksheet:
- Click the first cell in the range and then drag the thick, white-cross pointer to the last cell.
- Click the first cell in the range, and then hold down the Shift key as you click the last cell you want to select (a procedure known as Shift+clicking).
To select multiple, nonadjacent cell selections at a time (also known as a noncontiguous cell selection), you follow these steps:
- Select the first cell range with your mouse as usual.
- Hold down the Ctrl key as you use your mouse to select the second range.
When you hold down the Ctrl key as you start to select the second range, Excel does not deselect the first range - as it normally would - so this first range continues to be highlighted (shaded) in the worksheet. - Repeat Step 2 as needed to select all additional ranges that need to be included in the noncontiguous cell selection and then release both the Ctrl key and the mouse button at the same time.
Keep in mind that you can also use the keyboard to select cell ranges. After moving the cell pointer to the first cell in the range, hold down the Shift key as you press the appropriate cursor key (an arrow key or Page Up or Page Down). Holding down the Shift key anchors the cell range on the first cell and enables the program to extend the range when you press a cursor key. If you find holding down the Shift key too tiring, you can anchor the cell range on the current cell by pressing F8 - that puts the program into EXT (Extend) mode.
When selecting a range of cells that contain sequential data via the keyboard, you can really save time by combining the Ctrl+arrow key trick to hop from one end of a table of data to the other with the Shift key. By pressing Ctrl+Shift+arrow key, Excel selects from the current cell all the way to the last occupied cell in the arrow's direction in one fell swoop.
To select a noncontiguous range with the keyboard, you follow these steps:
- Position the cell pointer in the first cell of the first range to select, press F8 to put the program in EXT mode, and then select the range with the cursor keys.
- Press Shift+F8 to switch the program into ADD mode and then move the cell pointer to the first cell of the second range you want to select.
- Press F8 again to switch back into EXT mode and then select this second range with the cursor keys.
- Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until you select all the ranges you want included in the noncontiguous cell selection.
