Microsoft® Excel® 2010 Inside Out

Editing Cell Contents

You can use the formula bar to edit the contents of a selected cell, or you can perform your editing “on location” in the cell. Excel 2010 also includes a few special features you can apply to tasks such as entering date sequences, which once involved editing each cell but are now semiautomatic, if you know where to find the “trigger.”

Editing in Cells or in the Formula Bar

While typing or editing the contents of a cell, you can use Cut, Copy, Paste, and Clear to manipulate cell entries. Often, retyping a value or formula is easier, but using commands is convenient when you’re working with long, complex formulas or with labels. When you’re working in a cell or in the formula bar, these commands work just as they do in a word-processing ...