Excel Tutorial
Selecting Cells / Range of Cells
What is Selected Cell or Range of Cells?
The address of the selected cell / first cell of the selected range is displayed in the Name bar. A selected cell or a selected range is highlighted by thick border around it. A selected cell or a selected range is ready to receive commands.
Selecting Cells
A cell can be selected by moving the cursor to the cell and clicking the left mouse button. Alternatively, you can select the cell by using Keyboard keys, as stated in the table below:
| Arrow keys | Move one cell up, down, left, or right |
| Tab | Move one cell to the right |
| Shift+Tab | Move one cell to the left |
| Home | Move to the beginning of the row |
| Ctrl+Home | Move to the beginning of the worksheet |
| Ctrl+End | Move to the last cell on the worksheet, in the bottom-most used row of the rightmost used column |
| Page Down | Move down one screen |
| Page Up | Move up one screen |
| Alt+Page Down | Move one screen to the right |
| Alt+Page Up | Move one screen to the left |
| Ctrl+Backspace | Scroll to display the active cell |
To perform a function on a group of cells, those cells must be selected by highlighting them. To highlight cells B2 to E10:
- Place the cursor in cell B2.
- Press the F8 key. This anchors the cursor.
- Note that "EXT" appears on the Status bar in the lower right corner of the screen indicating that you are in the Extend mode.
- Click in cell E10. Cells B2 to E10 will now be highlighted.
- Press Esc and click anywhere on the worksheet to clear the highlighting.
Alternatively, a range of cells can also be selected by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse over the range i.e. hold down the left mouse button in Cell B2 and drag it to Cell E10.
Selecting Entire Worksheet
You can select and highlight the entire worksheet by a left mouse click on the box at top left of the worksheet formed by intersection of Column and Row headers or by pressing 'Ctrl + A' keys.
Selecting Non-contiguous Cells
- Place the cursor in the first cell to be selected.
- Hold down the Ctrl key and do not release it until all cells / ranges of cells you want to select are selected.
- Select Cells / Ranges of Cells you want to select.
- Release Ctrl key.