Spreadsheets

Unit 1: Introducing the Spreadsheet

Lesson 3: Editing Data

How do select or highlight a range of cells?

Sometimes it is more efficient to apply an operation on a range of cells at once. For example, you may want to change the number format of a column of data entries to currency. Rather than change the number format of each cell individually, you can select (or highlight) the range of cells you want to modify and they apply the command to all the cells in the selection. There are six methods of selecting a group of cells:

1. You can click on the cell at the top of the row numbers to select every cell in the spreadsheet.
2. You can click on a row label to select every cell in the row.
3. You can click on a column label to select every cell in a column.
4. You can select a rectangular range of cells from the work area by:
• Clicking and dragging the mouse pointer across the spreadsheet.
• Select the starting cell, and while holding down the Shift key, select the cell in the opposite corner of the range of cells you want to select.
• Select the starting cell, and while holding down the Shift key, use the arrow keys to select the range of cells you want.

The following simulation demonstrates and allows you to practice each method.

How do you deselect a range of cells?

To deselect a range of cells simply click on any cell in the spreadsheet. This will make the cell you clicked on the current cell. The simulation above shows several examples of deselecting a range.