The most basic way to extend a selection is to use the shift key + any arrow key. From a single cell, this lets you add additional cells in any direction. If you begin with larger selection, shift will let you extend the edges of that selection. To change which edges of a selection you can move, you can reposition the active to a different cell to a different corner using control + period. It’s not obvious, but you can move the edges of a selection that are opposite the active cell. This works with entire rows and columns, too. If I select a row, I can use shift to select additional rows above or below. If I select a column, I can do the same thing using shift with the left and right arrow keys. This can be a good way to insert or delete multiple rows and columns, or to do things like adjust multiple row heights or column widths. We’ve already looked at how you can use the control key (or the command key on the mac) plus arrow keys to navigate quickly across ranges of data. By adding the shift key too, you can select data in the same way. So, from the first cell in this data, we can extend the selection down to the bottom edge, then extend the selection to the right edge. I an also do the same thing starting from the bottom. Extending first to the top, then extending back to the left. You can also use the shift key to extend selections screen-by-screen. For vertical screen selections, use Shift + page up or down up in windows On Macs without extended keyboards use Shift + Fn + up or down arrow keys. For screen selections to the right or left, use use Shift + Alt + Page up and page down in Windows. And on Macs without extended keyboards use Shift + Fn + Command with the up or down arrow keys. It’s worth repeating that you can you can use control + A (command + a on a mac) to select all data in the same region. But note that this selects the headers too, unless you’re inside a proper Excel table. We’ll cover shortcuts for working with tables in a separate video.
Dave Bruns
Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.
