Conveniently select cells in Excel

Within Excel you will mainly work with the cells on the different worksheets. Sometimes the contents of a cell need to be copied to another place, or parts of worksheets. but before you can copy or cut something, you must first select it. This can be done with the mouse, but also by using key combinations, or a combination of a key and the mouse.

A single box is easy to select: click on it with the mouse pointer. Or navigate there using the arrow keys on the keyboard.

Selecting multiple cells that form a rectangle or square together is also very simple:

• Click on a cell.
• Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse pointer in the desired direction.
• The cells you move over will turn gray. With the mouse button pressed, you can select cells by moving the pointer left, right, up, or down.
• Release the mouse button and the cells are selected.

If you prefer to use the keyboard, you can also press the Shift key and select cells with the arrow keys.

If you want to select a formatted table, you don’t have to manually drag across the cells.

• Click in one of the cells in the table.
• Press Ctrl+A.

All cells on an entire worksheet, so both filled and empty, goes like this:

• Click on an empty cell.
• Press Ctrl+Aor click on the gray triangle at the top left of the worksheet, between the A and the 1.

Select columns by clicking on the corresponding letter, so for example the letter A for the leftmost column. Alternatively, select a cell in the column and press Ctrl+Spacebar.

This also applies to rows. Select a single row by clicking the number to its left. Or select a cell in that row and press Shift+Spacebar.

Are the rows or columns you want to select not directly next to each other? Then hold down the Ctrl key and click on the letters and/or numbers that indicate the columns and rows.