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Home > Jan's CompLit 101 > Working with Numbers > Intro > Select & Navigate
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Jan's Working with Numbers

    Intro: Select & Navigate

Before you can do anything in a spreadsheet, you must master the most basic skill - navigating the document. For a spreadsheet, much of your navigation is done by selecting the correct cells. 

Selecting = Navigating

Selecting parts of an Excel spreadsheet is a little different from selecting parts of a Word document. Many of the methods are quite like what you do in Word tables, but often easier. 

  • Click to select a single cell, a row, a column, or a sheet. 
  • Drag to select several things. 
  • Keyboard methods 

You will learn a lot of the keyboard and mouse methods in this section. For ease of reference later, in the Appendix there are links to several reminder tables.

Tip No Undo for Selecting: The Undo list does NOT including selecting cells or ranges! That means if you accidentally lose your selection, Undo won't select again for you.


Pointer Shapes

The mouse pointer has a number of shapes in Excel. The shape indicates what the effect will be of your mouse actions and keystrokes. As you move the pointer around, it may flicker from one shape to another. The examples below were taken from Excel 2010, but Excel 2013 and 2016 are the same except for color differences.
 

Shape: Used to:
Pointer: Select cell shape: White cross

Select a cell or range

Pointer: Move shape

Drag a selection to new location. The pointer must be over the border of the selection to change to the Move shape.

Pointer: Fill data shape (black cross)

Fill (copies values into the cells you drag across) or fill series (copies a pattern of values, such as filling in the days of the week or months of the year).

Cursor in cell, ready for typing

Entering or editing data. The cursor (vertical line inside the cell) blinks.

Pointer: Resize column shape

Resize column

Pointer: Resize row shape

Resize row

Pointer over column heading: black arrow pointing down

Select whole column

Pointer over row heading: black arrow pointing right

Select whole row

Pointer: Format Painter shape

Copy cell formats with Format Painter