Moving around in Excel

To move around the spreadsheet you can use either one, or both, of two methods.

The cursor keys on the keyboard may be used to move from one cell to another or the mouse can be used to jump from one place to another.

Using the Cursor Keys

Using the cursor keys only, try moving to cell D8.

Note that the name of the currently active cell is shown on the formula bar.

Using the keyboard has certain advantages over using the mouse to move from cell to cell.

It is easy to move in large jumps using the Page-Up and Page-Down keys.

These two keys will move you up and down by a whole screen each time you press either one respectively.

Try using the Page-Down and the Page-Up keys to move down and then back up a few screenfuls.

Note that the names of the rows change as you move and that the current cell, as shown in the formula bar, also changes.

To move to the right and to the left you use the right and left cursor keys, but to move quickly to the left-hand edge of the spreadsheet you can press the Home key.

To move to cell A1 at any time you can press Control-Home.

Using the Mouse

The mouse is still very useful for moving around but its main use in Excel is selecting cells as shown later.

To move to another cell when using the mouse just point to the cell you wish to move to and click once.

Its name will appear in the Formula Bar.

If the cell you wish to select is off the screen then the scroll bars can be used to move to the correct part of the spreadsheet before selecting the cell.

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