Unit 5.  Manipulating cells (I)

We are going to look at the different cell selection methods in order to know how to modify their aspect and how to differentiate between the methods, and so be able to choose the most suitable method to perform any given operation.

Cell selection

Before carrying out any modification to a cell or cell range in Excel2003 we need to select the cells that we want to perform the operation on. Below you will find some of the selection methods most commonly used.

We recommend that you start Excel2003 now in order to test what we explain to you.

At the moment of selecting cells, it is important to note the shape of the mouse pointer to know if we are going to select cells or to perform some other operation. The shape of the mouse pointer at the time of selecting cells is in the shape of a thick white cross, seen here:

Selecting a single cell

In order to select a single cell you only need to clic on the cell, and then select it with another click.

Selecting a range of cells

In order to select a set of adjacent cells, left-click on the first cell to select, and maintaining the mouse button depressed drag the pointer to the last cell to select and release the mouse button, you will see that the cells appear selected (they take on a mark around them and change colour).

Selection of a column

To select a column you need to situate the pointer over the upper column identifier to select and click on it.

Selection of a row

To select a column you need to situate the pointer over the left column identifier to select and click on it.

Selection of an entire sheet

Situate yourself over the upper left button of the sheet, situated between the column A indicative and the row 1, and click on it.

If we perform a sheet operation like eliminate sheet or insert as sheet, it is not necessary to select all of the cells, as once we are situated in a sheet it stops remaining selected.

Adding to a selection

It may often be that we have forgotten to select a particular cell or that we want to select NON-adjacent cells, and for this we can perform the new selection by maintaing the CTRL key depressed.

This type of selection can be performed with cells, columns, or rows. Eg we can select a row and then add a new row to the selection by clicking on the row indicator while maintaining the CTRL key depreseed.

Extend or reduce a selection

If we want to extend or reduce an existing selection, and as long as all the cells are adjacent, we can perform the following steps: maintaining the SHIFT key depressed, and click where we want the selection to end.

You can practise some of the functions explained in this theme by performing the Exercises on Selections.

If you want more information on selection methods clic here .

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