The keyboard and the mouse may be used to select cells. Selected cells are indicated by reverse video (white background becomes black, etc.). Hidden cells are selected if their columns or rows are within a selected block of cells. Single cells, a rectangular block of cells, one or more rows, one or more columns, or the entire worksheet can be selected.
Cells may be selected to
perform editing and clipboard functions,
compute statistics for selected cells, or to
set cell, column, or row properties for multiple items via the Data | Format tab with column width, row height, and format cells commands.
Selecting Cells
There are several ways to select cells:
Clicking on the small box above the row labels and to the left of the column label bar selects the entire worksheet.
To deselect all selected cells, click the left mouse button anywhere within the worksheet, press the ESC key, or move the active cell with an ARROW key or other movement key.
To rapidly select a large block, first select one corner of the block, and then use the scroll bars to scroll to the opposite corner. Hold down the SHIFT key and click on the cell at the opposite corner. The PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, HOME, and END keys may also be used, but the SHIFT key must be held down while these keys are pressed. The SHIFT key is not needed while using the scroll bars.
To select all cells in a column or row, click the column letter or row number. To select several adjacent columns or rows, press and hold the left mouse button and drag the pointer on the column letters or row numbers.
While holding down the CTRL key, the active cell may be repositioned for selecting a new block.
The CTRL key is used to select multiple blocks and the SHIFT key is used to resize the last selected block. Details and exceptions are given in separate help sections for selecting with the mouse and selecting with the keyboard.
If entire rows or columns are selected by clicking on the headers, some operations, such as statistics, can take a long time. Rather than clicking on the headers, only select the cells containing data.
Clicking and holding the left mouse button while dragging the mouse in the worksheet selects a block. Similarly, using the SHIFT key plus the ARROW keys selects a block.
The keys used with SHIFT for selecting cells are the ARROW keys, PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, HOME, and END. TAB and SHIFT+TAB cannot be used.
While holding down the SHIFT key, the last selected block may be resized. Use the SHIFT key and the mouse or the SHIFT key and ARROW keys.
The active cell is at one corner (or edge) of a selected block and must first be positioned before selecting multiple cells.
The last block cannot be resized if the active cell has been moved.
Once selected, a block of cells cannot be unselected unless all cells are unselected.