Moving around a Database

Databases are often quite large but there are a few shortcuts we can use to move around in Excel.

For example suppose you have a 5000 record database and you want to go to the last record without scrolling through the entire list.

Try this technique,

Open a spreadsheet with a list in it.

(NB You should load the file Winelist.xls into Excel for this exercise. Winelist.xls is an Excel spreadsheet containing some 50 wines and is located on your WebBooks disc in the 'start\adspread' directory.)

Click somewhere in the list of records.
(note: the active cell must be somewhere in the list for this technique to work)

Press the 'End' key followed the 'Down' key.

You should end up at the last record.

Repeat the process to jump to the first record but this time use the 'End' key followed by the 'Up' key

Exercise

This technique works for the 'Left' and 'Right' keys as well.

Try it.

This technique is not limited to just databases, it works any where in Excel where there is a block of cells containing data.