In this article, we will look at Excel selection techniques which involve using the mouse in conjunction with the keyboard. One of the most useful is click followed by Shift-click. This is particularly useful for selecting large ranges of data since it allows you to simply click on two opposite corners of the rectangular range of cells which you want to highlight. To use this technique, first click in the top left cell of the range you want to highlight. Next, scroll to make the bottom right cell of the proposed range visible. Finally, hold down the Shift key and click on the bottom right cell. All the cells between the two cells that you have clicked on will now be highlighted.

The other modifier key which can be used in conjunction with the mouse to make selections is Control. Whereas the mouse and Shift key combination only allows you to make rectangular selections, using the mouse in conjunction with the Control key, you can make non-contiguous selections; in other words, you can select cells which aren't adjacent to each other. Once you have made a selection, the next operation you perform will only apply to the highlighted cells. For example, you could copy the cells and paste them into a new worksheet.

A less well-known way of selecting cells is to double-click one of the edges of the bold rectangle which surrounds the currently selected area while holding down the Shift key. Excel always displays a bold border around the currently highlighted cells. If you hold down the Shift key and double-click on the right-hand border, you will select all the cells up to the right-hand edge of the current range. The first column that contains blank cells will act as a boundary and Excel selects up to that boundary. Naturally, you can also extend the current selection by holding down the Shift key and double-clicking on any of the other borders as well.

It is also possible to highlight cells using the keyboard alone. However, only a contiguous range of cells can be selected in this way. To perform this technique, hold down the Shift key and press one of the cursor keys. For example, select to the right, press the right cursor key; to select adjacent rows, press the down cursor key; and so forth. You can also press the left and up cursor keys to remove cells from the selection.

To select all the cells up to the edge of a range of data, hold down the Control and Shift keys while pressing one of the cursor keys. For example, the right cursor key will select all the cells up to the right edge of the current range; the down arrow will select all the cells to the bottom; and so forth.

As well as pressing the cursor keys, you can use the End key. Hold down Control and Shift and press the End key to select all the cells to the bottom right of the current range.

Andrew Whiteman

The The writer of this article is a training consultant with Macresource Computer Solutions, a UK IT training company offering Microsoft Excel 2007 training courses at their central London training centre.

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