Excel 2003 for Starters: The Missing Manual

Navigating in Excel

Learning how to move around the Excel grid quickly and confidently is an indispensable skill. To move from cell to cell, you have two basic choices:

• Use the arrow keys on the keyboard. Keystrokes move you one cell at a time in any direction.

• Click the cell with the mouse. A mouse click jumps you directly to the cell you've clicked.

As you move from cell to cell, you see the black focus box move to highlight the currently active cell.

In some cases, you may want to cover ground a little more quickly. You can use any of the shortcut keys listed in Table 1-1. The most useful shortcut keys include the Home key combinations, which bring you back to the beginning of a row or the top of your worksheet.

Note

Shortcut key combinations that use the + sign must be entered together. For example, "Ctrl+Home" means hold down the Ctrl key and press the Home key at the same time. Other key combinations work in sequence. For example, the key combination "End, Home" means press End first, take your finger off it, and then press Home.

Table 1-1. Shortcut Keys for Moving Around a Worksheet

KEY COMBINATION	RESULT
→ (or Tab)	Moves one cell to the right.
← (or Shift+Tab)	Moves one cell to the left.
↑	Moves one cell up.
↓ (or Enter)	Moves one cell down.
Page Up	Moves up one screenful. Thus, if the grid shows 10 cells at a time, this key moves to a cell in the same column, 10 rows up (unless you're already at the top of the worksheet).
Page Down	Moves down one screenful. Thus, ...