Lessons Lesson 2

Moving Around Without the Mouse

About this lesson

The arrow keys move the selected cell. Hold Shift to grow the selection. Hold Ctrl to jump to the end of the data.

By the end you can

  • move around a sheet with the arrow keys instead of the mouse.
  • grow a selection with Shift and jump to the end of a column with Ctrl.
  • jump to a row you did not count and write a formula against it.

By Ali, Founder, Excel Lessons

The idea

Four combinations do almost all the work. An arrow key moves one cell. Shift and an arrow grows the selection instead of moving it. Ctrl and an arrow jumps to the last filled cell in that direction, even on a sheet with 2,000 rows. Ctrl, Shift and an arrow does both: it jumps to the end and selects everything on the way. Ctrl+Home goes back to A1 from anywhere.

One thing to know. Ctrl with an arrow stops at a gap. It looks for the end of the filled cells, not the end of the table. If a column has an empty cell in the middle, you press the key twice. The shortcut is not broken. The gap is telling you something about your data.

The mistake to watch for

People select a long column with the mouse. Dragging to row 2,000 goes too far or stops too early, and you cannot see where it ends. Use the keyboard instead. Ctrl and an arrow jumps to the end of the data. Add Shift and the selection comes with you. CtrlShiftDown selects the whole column in one press.

Read more about this

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Press the shortcut

The arrow keys move the selected cell, one cell per press.

Press the down arrow once.

A1
Date
Row A B C D E F G
1 Date Covers Card takings Friday's extra covers
2 Mon 4 Mar 78 612.4
3 Tue 5 Mar 64 501.1
4 Wed 6 Mar 91 733.85
5 Thu 7 Mar 88 690.2
6 Fri 8 Mar 140 1204.6
7
8

Every step

  1. 1

    The arrow keys move the selected cell, one cell per press. Press the down arrow once.

    Hint. One key, no modifier.

  2. 2

    Shift with an arrow grows the selection. The cell you started on stays selected. Press ShiftDown. That adds one row to the selection.

    Hint. Hold one modifier and press the same arrow.

  3. 3

    Ctrl with an arrow jumps to the last filled cell in that direction. Press CtrlDown.

    Hint. Not Shift. The other one.

  4. 4

    Ctrl jumps to the end. Shift brings the selection along. Press CtrlShiftDown. That selects everything from your cell to the last row of data.

    Hint. Two modifiers and one arrow.

  5. 5

    CtrlHome goes back to A1 from anywhere on the sheet. Press CtrlHome.

    Hint. Home, with the same modifier as the jumping ones.

  6. 6

    CtrlDown landed you on Friday, the busiest day. In E2, type: =B6-B2, which is how many more covers than Monday.

    Hint. Row 6 take away row 2.