Part I: Getting Started with Excel
76
TABLE 4.1 (continued)
Option What It Does
Precedents Selects cells that are referred to in the formulas in the active cell or selection
(limited to the active sheet). You can select either direct precedents or precedents
at any level. See Chapter 32 for more information.
Dependents Selects cells with formulas that refer to the active cell or selection (limited to the
active sheet). You can select either direct dependents or dependents at any level.
See Chapter 32 for more information.
Last Cell Selects the bottom-right cell in the worksheet that contains data or formatting.
Visible Cells Only Selects only visible cells in the selection. This option is useful when dealing with
outlines or a filtered table.
Conditional Formats Selects cells that have a conditional format applied (by choosing Home ➪
Styles ➪ Conditional Formatting). The Same option selects only the cells that
have the same conditional formatting as the active cell.
Data Validation Selects cells that are set up for data-entry validation (by choosing Data ➪ Date
Tools ➪ Data Validation). The All option selects all such cells. The Same option
selects only the cells that have the same validation rules as the active cell.Tip
When you select an option in the Go to Special dialog box, be sure to note which suboptions become avail-
able. For example, when you select Constants, the suboptions under Formulas become available to help you
further refine the results. Likewise, the suboptions under Dependents also apply to Precedents, and those under
Data Validation also apply to Conditional Formats. n
Selecting cells by searching .......................................................................................
Another way to select cells is to use the Excel Home ➪ Editing ➪ Find & Select ➪ Find, com-
mand (or press Ctrl+F), which allows you to select cells by their contents. The Find and Replace
dialog box is shown in Figure 4.6. This figure shows additional options that are available when you
click the Options button.Enter the text that you’re looking for; then click Find All. The dialog box expands to display all the
cells that match your search criteria. For example, Figure 4.7 shows the dialog box after Excel has
located all cells that contain the text March. You can click an item in the list, and the screen will
scroll so that you can view the cell in context. To select all the cells in the list, first select any single
item in the list. Then press Ctrl+A to select them all.