Excel Practice
Lessons Lesson 16

Jumping and Selecting Across a Table

About this lesson

Ctrl with an arrow key jumps to the edge of the filled data in that direction. Ctrl+Shift with an arrow selects everything up to that edge. Home returns to the first cell of the current row.

By the end you can

  • jump to the edge of a table in any direction with Ctrl and an arrow.
  • select to the edge of the data with Ctrl+Shift and an arrow.
  • get to the start of a row with Home.

The idea

One rule, eight shortcuts. Ctrl with an arrow jumps to the edge of the data in that direction. Add Shift and the jump becomes a selection. That is Ctrl+Right, Ctrl+Left, Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down, each with and without Shift. Between them they replace every scroll and every drag on a table of any size.

The mistake is a gap. Ctrl+Down stops at the first empty cell. So a column with an empty row in it takes two jumps. A selection made with Ctrl+Shift+Down stops there too. If a total comes out short, that is the first thing to check.

The mistake to watch for

Scrolling to find the end of a table. Ctrl with an arrow jumps to the last filled cell in that direction. It stops at the first gap, so an empty cell in the middle of a column is where the jump ends. If CtrlDown lands somewhere unexpected, there is a hole in the data above it.

This lesson needs JavaScript to run. Everything below is the lesson in full, but you cannot type into the grid or be marked.

Press the shortcut

From A1, jump to the last filled cell at the right end of the heading row, in one key press.

A1
Part
Row A B C D E F G
1 Part Bin Stock Reorder at
2 Hinge A3 140 50
3 Bracket A4 32 40
4 Bolt M6 B1 910 300
5 Washer B2 1200 500
6 Castor C1 18 12
7
8

Every step

  1. 1

    From A1, jump to the last filled cell at the right end of the heading row, in one key press.

    Hint. Ctrl and the right arrow.

  2. 2

    You are at the bottom of the stock column. Jump back to the top of it.

    Hint. Ctrl and the up arrow.

  3. 3

    From A2, select the whole of the hinge row across to the reorder level, without dragging.

    Hint. Ctrl, Shift and the right arrow.

  4. 4

    From the bottom of the stock column, select everything up to its heading in one key press.

    Hint. Ctrl, Shift and the up arrow.

  5. 5

    You are somewhere in the middle of row 4. Go to the first cell of that row without leaving the row.

    Hint. The Home key on its own.