Selecting a contiguous or non-contiguous range of cells without pressing Ctrl or Shift

Press F8 for contiguous selection. The letters EXT appear in the status bar. Pressing F8 extends the selected region. Select cell A1, and extend the selected region by pressing one of the arrow keys.

Press F8 again to toggle off the option of contiguous selection.

Press Shift+F8 for non-contiguous selection. The letters ADD appear in the status bar. Select a number of non-contiguous ranges by using the mouse to select one range after another.

Press Shift+F8 again to toggle off the option of non-contiguous selection.

Selecting the current region

The current region is a contiguous range of cells that contain data. The current region is enclosed by

blank rows and blank columns and/or the edge of the worksheet.

Ctrl+* (the star above the 9 in the numeric pad) is the keyboard shortcut for selecting the current region.

For those of you using laptops, the shortcut is Ctrl + Shift +

Moving the Cellpointer around a selected range

When you select a range of cells, the borders of the selected range are clearly defined.

• Press Enter to move downward within the selected range.      

• Press Shift + Enter to move upward within the selected range.

Press Tab to move to the right. Press Shift + Tab to move to the left. Would you like to move to the corners of the selected range? Press Ctrl +. (Ctrl + period).