Page 79 - Excel Timesaving Techniques for Dummies

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Technique 12: Data Entry Tricks
TABLE 12-1: KEYSTROKES FOR MOVING WITHIN A SELECTED enter the last column heading Sales Price in cell E3.
CELL RANGE To get to this point, I’ve already entered the table
heading in A2 (the first cell of the selected cell
When You Press This The Cell Pointer Moves Here
range) by pressing the Enter key. Doing so reposi-
Enter Down each row and then right tioned the pointer down one row in cell A3. I then
across the remaining columns of completed each column heading entry in cells A3,
the selected range. (Moves one
column to the right, same as Tab B3, C3, and D4 across row 3 by pressing the Tab key,
when the selection consists of a which automatically advances the cell pointer one
single row.) column to the right upon data entry completion.
Shift+Enter Up each row and then left across
the remaining columns of the
selected range. (Moves one column
to the left when the selection con-
sists of a single row.)
Tab To the next column right and then
to the beginning of the next row
down in the selected range. (Moves
down one row when the selection
consists of a single column, same
as Enter.)
• Figure 12-3: Entering column headings across the row
Shift+Tab To the next column left and then to
the beginning of the row above in with Tab in the preselected cell range A2:E9.
the selected range. (Moves up one
row when the selection consists of When I press Tab again to insert the Sales Price col-
a single column, same as umn heading in cell E3 — the last column of the
Shift+Enter.) selected cell range — Excel automatically advances
the cell pointer down one row to cell A4 (see Figure
Ctrl+period (.) From one corner to the next corner
of the selected range, in a clock- 12-4), the first column of the selected range.
wise direction.

When entering data in a preselected range,
you must not press an arrow key to complete
any of the entries, or you’ll end up collapsing
the cell selection at the same time you put the
new entry in the current cell.
Figures 12-3 and 12-4 illustrate how doing data entry
in a preselected cell range works. In these figures,
I’m constructing a simple table that will list the sales
• Figure 12-4: Sales table after entering the last column
prices for furniture in the upcoming spring sale. heading in E3 and pressing Tab.
In Figure 12-3, I have reached the end of the data
At this point, I want to switch the direction of my
entry for the second row of the table — the one con- data entry, preferring to enter the Code numbers
taining the column headings — and I’m just about to
down each column by pressing Enter (instead of