Office 2007 Bible

Selecting Rows, Columns, and Cells

If you want to apply formatting to one or more cells, or issue a command that acts upon them such as Copy or Delete, you must first select the cells to be affected:

• A single cell: Move the insertion point by clicking inside the desired cell. At this point, any command acts on that individual cell and its contents, not the whole table, row, or column. Drag across multiple cells to select them.

• An entire row or column: Click any cell in that row or column and then open the Select button’s menu on the Layout tab and choose Select Column or Select Row (Figure 23-5). Alternatively, position the mouse pointer above the column or to the left of the row, so that the mouse pointer turns into a black arrow, and then click to select the column or row. (You can drag to extend the selection to additional columns or rows when you see the black arrow.)

Figure 23-5. Select a row or column with the Select button’s menu, or click above or to the left of the column or row.

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There are two ways to select the entire table—or rather, two senses in which the entire table can be “selected.”

• Select all table cells: When you select all of the cells, they all appear with shaded backgrounds, and any text formatting command that you apply at that point affects all of the text in the table. To select all cells, do any of the following:

  • Choose Select Table ...