All Excel users should be able to activate cells and enter data in an Excel spreadsheet; After all, these are the most basic actions in Excel. However, many Excel beginners do not fully understand the difference between a cell that is ‘on’ and a cell that is in ‘edit mode’. Even the most experienced Excel users are often not aware of all the different ways you can select a cell range or enter cell edit mode in Excel.

When you click on a cell in an Excel worksheet, the cell is not in edit mode, it is simply activated. If you start typing, while a cell is activated, your typed text replace the content of the activated cell. Or, if you press the left, right, up or down arrow keys on your keyboard, this will move the activation to an adjacent cell (to the left, right, up or down of the previously activated cell).

However, if your cell is in edit mode, the rules change. A cursor appears in the cell (or formula bar), and everything you type will be additional to the cell, along with the content of the existing cell. Also, when a cell is in edit mode, the keyboard’s right, left, up, and down arrow keys cause the cursor to move within the cell.

So now we have clarified the difference between activated cells and cells in edit mode, how do we actually activate a cell or range of cells? You can use any of the three main ways listed below:

• Single click on cell with mouse
• Use the keyboard’s left, right, up, and down arrow keys to navigate from a current selection to the cell you want to activate.
• Write a reference to the cell in the ‘Name Box’ at the top left of the worksheet, for example. To activate cell A2, type “A2” in the Name box and then press the return (or enter) key.

Note that you can easily see which is the current activated cell as it is highlighted in Excel with a thick black border.

Often in Excel, you will want to select a range of cells. Note that even when you have a cell range selected in Excel, only one of the cells within the range will be activated (shown by a thick black border). This means that when you enter data or text, this will overwrite the content of the activated cell, and when you press the arrow keys on the keyboard, this will activate different cells within the selected range.
There are several ways to select a range of cells. You also can:

• Use the mouse to click on the start of the range and drag across the range you want to select
• Write a reference to the cell range in the ‘Name Box’ at the top left of the worksheet, for example. To select cells A1 through D4, type “A1: D4” in the Name box, and then press the Enter (or Enter) key.
• Activate a cell at the beginning of the range, then press the SHIFT key. With the SHIFT key still selected, use the mouse to click a cell at the end of the range.
• Activate a cell at the beginning of the range, then press the SHIFT key. With the SHIFT key still selected, use the keyboard’s left, right, up, or down arrow keys to increase or decrease the selected range, one cell at a time.
• Activate a cell at the beginning of the range, then press the SHIFT and CTRL keys. With these keys still selected, use the left, right, up or down arrow keys on the keyboard, to increase or decrease the currently selected range to the end of the current data set (note that the selection will end in the next cell empty).

If you want to select an entire row or column in a worksheet, click the row number to the left of the worksheet or the column letter at the top of the worksheet, or if you want to select entire worksheet, click on the gray / blue square at the top left of the worksheet.

Finally, we look at the three ways to put a cell in edit mode. You also can:

• Double click on the cell

Now, select the cell you want to edit and then:

• Click on the formula bar
• Press F2

At first, you may think that you don’t need to learn all the different methods for activating, selecting, and editing cells. After all, as long as you know one way to select a range of cells, why bother learning 4 other ways to do the same? However, if you use Excel a lot, you will find that the different methods are better suited for different situations and that in general you will soon save a lot of time quickly selecting the most suitable method for each occasion.