Excel 2010 Bible

Chapter 2: Entering and Editing Worksheet Data

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l (^) Select multiple characters. Press Shift while you use the navigation keys.
l Select characters while you’re editing a cell. Use the mouse. Just click and drag the
mouse pointer over the characters that you want to select.

Learning some handy data-entry techniques ..............................................................

You can simplify the process of entering information into your Excel worksheets and make your

work go quite a bit faster by using a number of useful tricks, described in the following sections.

Automatically moving the cell pointer after entering data ................................

By default, Excel automatically moves the cell pointer to the next cell down when you press the

Enter key after entering data into a cell. To change this setting, choose File ➪ Options and click

the Advanced tab (see Figure 2.4). The check box that controls this behavior is labeled After

Pressing Enter, Move Selection. If you enable this option, you can choose the direction in which

the cell pointer moves (down, left, up, or right).

Your choice is completely a matter of personal preference. I prefer to keep this option turned off.

When entering data, I use the navigation keys rather than the Enter key (see the next section).

FIGURE 2.4

You can use the Advanced tab in Excel Options to select a number of helpful input option settings.

Using navigation keys instead of pressing Enter ...............................................

Instead of pressing the Enter key when you’re finished making a cell entry, you also can use any

of the navigation keys to complete the entry. Not surprisingly, these navigation keys send you in

the direction that you indicate. For example, if you’re entering data in a row, press the right-

arrow (→) key rather than Enter. The other arrow keys work as expected, and you can even use

PgUp and PgDn.