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Weekly Computer Tip # 93
18 December 2004
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Keyboard shortcut to move cell pointer to last cell of a row or column (Microsoft Excel)

This week's tip is a short one. For two reasons. 1) I spent most of this week in bed on doctor's order. (In case you're interested - no, it wasn't exhaustion ;-) 2) It's a simple, yet extremely powerful keyboard shortcut and doesn't need more explanation. Credit, by the way, goes to Andrew Enticknap, the Finance Manager of Pembroke College, where I recently did a bespoke Microsoft Excel training session. A bit of role reversal it was, as it turned out Andrew was a walking source of handy Excel tips and this is the one I liked best (especially knowing you could potentially have 256 columns and 65536 rows) ...

We all know that in order to enter data into a cell or to change a cell's contents, you must first select the cell by moving the cell pointer to it. This can be done with either a mouse or the keyboard. If you want to enter data at the end of the row or column, the quickest way to move your cursor to the end of that row or column is as follows:

  1. Click anywhere in the row or column.
  2. Press [CTRL] + [RIGHT] or [DOWN] arrow (to quickly move to resp. the end of the row or the end of the column).

What I've since found out, however, is that you can use this trick to select all (or part of the) cells in the row or column:

  1. Click in the first cell you want to include in the selection.
  2. Press [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + [RIGHT] or [DOWN] arrow.

(Knew that one, Andrew? ;-)

That's it for this week. Next week will be Christmas Day so next week's tip will be a day early. (But in case you're down the pub by then or running around to do your last minute shopping ... have a fabulous Christmas!)

Until next week.

Karen
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December 2004