Excel 2010 Bible

Part I: Getting Started with Excel

70

Selecting ranges .........................................................................................................

To perform an operation on a range of cells in a worksheet, you must first select the range. For

example, if you want to make the text bold for a range of cells, you must select the range and then

choose Home ➪ Font ➪ Bold (or press Ctrl+B).

When you select a range, the cells appear highlighted. The exception is the active cell, which

remains its normal color. Figure 4.1 shows an example of a selected range (B5:C8) in a worksheet.

Cell B5, the active cell, is selected but not highlighted.

FIGURE 4.1

When you select a range, it appears highlighted, but the active cell within the range is not highlighted.

You can select a range in several ways:

l Press the left mouse button and drag, highlighting the range. Then release the mouse but-

ton. If you drag to the end of the screen, the worksheet will scroll.

l Press the Shift key while you use the navigation keys to select a range.

l (^) Press F8 and then move the cell pointer with the navigation keys to highlight the range.
Press F8 again to return the navigation keys to normal movement.
l (^) Type the cell or range address into the Name box and press Enter. Excel selects the cell or
range that you specified.
l (^) Choose Home ➪ Editing ➪ Find & Select ➪ Go To (or press F5) and enter a range’s
address manually into the Go To dialog box. When you click OK, Excel selects the cells in
the range that you specified.
Tip
While you’re selecting a range, Excel displays the number of rows and columns in your selection in the Name
box (located on the left side of the Formula bar). As soon as you finish the selection, the Name box reverts to
showing the address of the active cell. n