Special Edition Using Microsoft Excel Selecting and Naming Cells and Ranges

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Special Edition Using Microsoft Excel Selecting and Naming Cells and Ranges"

Norah Potter
6 years ago
Views:

1 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Exce Lesson 3 - Seecting and Naming Ces and.. Page 1 of 8 [Figures are not incuded in this sampe chapter] Specia Edition Using Microsoft Exce Seecting and Naming Ces and Ranges In this chapter Seecting Ces Seecting Coumns and Rows Seecting Noncontiguous Ranges Seecting Ranges on Grouped Worksheets Naming Ranges for Fast Access Troubeshooting Exce in Practice Seecting Ces After data entry, seecting worksheet content is probaby the task most frequenty performed in Exce. Seecting ces and ranges tes Exce where you are and what you're doing, and is an integra step in most formatting, cacuation, and editing procedures. To seect an individua ce, cick on it or use any of the keyboard shortcuts shown in Tabe 3.1 for worksheet navigation to move to the desired ce. TABLE 3.1. Keyboard Shortcuts for Seecting Individua Ces Keyboard Shortcut Seects Enter The ce beow the current ce Tab The ce to the right of the current ce Shift+Tab The ce to the eft of the current ce Ctr+Home Ce A1 Home The first ce in the current row When a ce is active (the current ce), it appears with a thick border around it, as shown in Figure 3.1. This border, caed the ce pointer, indicates the active ce. The Name box in the Formua bar fie://j:\prodinfo\members\ma\iq969.htm 3/23/01

2 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Exce Lesson 3 - Seecting and Naming Ces and.. Page 2 of 8 dispays the address of the active ce. FIGURE 3.1 Seect a ce in preparation for entering or editing content, or to format the existing content of the ce. To seect a range of ces, cick and drag through them, dragging up, down, eft, right, or a combination of these directions to seect the desired range of ces. Reease the mouse when the desired bock of ces (two or more) is highighted. Figure 3.2 shows a seected range of ces. The range in this exampe woud have the address C7:H17--the coon representing the word through. The active ce is ce C7, which indicates that the range was seected from upper-eft to ower-right; the ce pointer remains in the first ce seected. Notice that Exce highights the row and coumn headings for the seected range, bodfacing the heading etter(s) or number(s) and dispaying the headings as if they were buttons, with a "pushed-out" appearance. As you seect a contiguous range--a range in which a the ces are adjacent to one another--exce dispays information in the Name box to match the seection. In this case, the designation 11R x 6C indicates that the seection is eeven rows ong and six coumns wide. As soon as you compete the seection, the Name box goes back to dispaying the address of the current ce. FIGURE 3.2 The starting ce remains white. Other ces in the seected range show a transparent coor (you can see the seected ces through the coor). TIP: Whie this chapter s tite ists them as two different things, both singe ces and ranges of ces are considered ranges by Exce. You find this interchangeabe terminoogy and concept in many areas, such as named ranges, covered ater in this chapter. Seected ces are vunerabe. If you accidentay press the spacebar or type a character whie a ce or range of ces is seected, the content of the seection (in the one white ce of the range) wi be deeted, repaced with a space or the character you typed. If this occurs, press Esc to cance the entry if the ce is sti seected. If you aready accepted the entry, use the Undo feature to restore the origina entry. When a range of bank ces is seected, enter content by typing in the first ce and then pressing Enter. You automaticay are moved to the next ce in the range. Continue typing content in each ce, and pressing Enter after each one. This procedure changes the norma effect of pressing the Enter key--normay the Enter key takes you to the ce beow the current ce--and aows you to confine your edits to one area. If you seect a bock or range of ces for entry, using this method aso wi enabe you to type entries without ooking back at the worksheet to see where you are whie typing. This is especiay usefu if you re referring to a printed document or written notes as a source for the entries. TIP: If you have seected a range that incudes mutipe rows, each press of the Enter key moves the ce pointer down unti you reach the ast row within the seection. Pressing Enter again moves the active ce to the top ce in the next coumn to the right. Use Shift+Enter to move backward in a seection. Aternativey, you can move eft to right in a seection by pressing the Tab key. Use fie://j:\prodinfo\members\ma\iq969.htm 3/23/01

3 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Exce Lesson 3 - Seecting and Naming Ces and.. Page 3 of 8 Shift+Tab to move right to eft. You aso can seect a range of ces by using the keyboard. To seect a bock of ces, foow these steps: 1. Use the most appropriate keyboard shortcut or cick in the first ce in the desired range. 2. Press and hod down the Shift key. 3. Use the arrow keys to seect ces to the right of, eft of, above, or beow the starting ce. To seect arger bocks of text, use PgUp/PgDn or At+PgUp/At+PgDn. 4. When the desired bock of ces is seected, reease the Shift key. TIP: It may be easier to use the Shift key and arrow keys to seect a range when you re in the midde of a ong data entry session--it saves you the time of using the mouse and dragging through ces when your hands are aready on the keyboard. Seecting Coumns and Rows Seecting a range requires highighting a bock of ces. You can drag to seect a the entries in a coumn or row, but in many cases it s more efficient to seect the entire row (a 256 ces) or coumn (a 65,536 ces), whether you re using the entire range of ces or not. To drag through an entire row or coumn coud take severa minutes, just to scro to the ends of the worksheet. It s much easier to cick the coumn etter or row number for the desired coumn or row, as shown in Figure 3.3. FIGURE 3.3 Cick the coumn etter to seect a 65,536 ces in the coumn. Notice that the coor of the coumn or row heading is reversed when the entire coumn is seected. (This behavior may affect or be affected by background fis or patterns in the ces, however.) If your worksheet incudes background fis or patterns, the seection coor may ook unusua. See "Coor Seection Looks Odd" in the Troubeshooting section at the end of this chapter. You can seect mutipe coumns or rows by dragging through the coumn etters or row numbers, as shown in Figure 3.4. Formatting an entire coumn or row tends to boat the fie size of the workbook because Exce must store the formatting information for every ce you seected, regardess of whether you ever enter any content in that ce. Appy goba formatting ony when necessary. FIGURE 3.4 Seect a series of coumns or rows to copy, move, format, or enter content for the entire seection. Tabe 3.2 ists keyboard shortcuts you can use to seect rows or coumns in a worksheet. The Resut coumn in the tabe assumes that the active ce is in the row or coumn you want to seect before you use these shortcuts. fie://j:\prodinfo\members\ma\iq969.htm 3/23/01

4 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Exce Lesson 3 - Seecting and Naming Ces and.. Page 4 of 8 TABLE 3.2. Row and Coumn Seection with the Keyboard Keyboard Shortcut Resut Ctr+Spacebar Seects the entire coumn. Shift+Spacebar Seects the entire row. Ctr+Shift+Spacebar Seects the entire worksheet. You can seect the entire worksheet by cicking the Seect A button (the bank gray button at the intersection of the coumn etters and row numbers) just beow the Name box. Seecting Noncontiguous Ranges When edits, formatting changes, or deetions you want to make are in mutipe separate areas of the worksheet, you can seect these noncontiguous ranges by adding the Ctr key to the seection procedure. To seect mutipe ranges that don't share adjacent ces, foow these steps: 1. Seect the first ce or range of ces. 2. Reease the mouse, and press and hod down the Ctr key. 3. Using the mouse again, seect the next ce or range of ces. 4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 unti you've seected a the ranges you need. Figure 3.5 shows a worksheet with three noncontiguous ranges seected: B6:B17, B6:H6, and C18:H18. FIGURE 3.5 Seect the coumn and row abes, as we as the row of totas, so that you can appy formatting to a the seected ces at once. After making these noncontiguous seections, you can deete or format a the seected areas at once. You can copy noncontiguous seections to the Cipboard ony if a the seections are the same size and shape. For exampe, in Figure 3.5, you can seect B7:E7, B11:E11, and B14:E14, and then copy that entire noncontiguous seection. You' notice that when you seect the second range of ces, the active ce (starting ce) switches from the starting ce in the first range to the starting ce in the second range. The current ce wi continue to move to each subsequent range you add to the group of seected ranges, ending up in the first ce of the ast seected range. Seecting Ranges on Grouped Worksheets In addition to being abe to seect contiguous or noncontiguous ranges on a singe worksheet, you might occasionay want to seect the same ranges on mutipe worksheets within a workbook. Why might you want to seect ces/ranges from severa sheets at once? The foowing ist offers some fie://j:\prodinfo\members\ma\iq969.htm 3/23/01

5 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Exce Lesson 3 - Seecting and Naming Ces and.. Page 5 of 8 suggestions: To speed up and simpify formatting changes. Want to make a tites on a sheets ook the same? Seect them a at once and then appy the formatting. To expedite editing a series of ces. You know that a seected range of ces can be edited, ce by ce, with the Enter key. What if you want to make changes to ce content on severa sheets? Go through the workbook and seect a the ranges, so that as you edit and press Enter, you re taken automaticay to the next ce in the series to be edited. Keep in mind, though, that grouped worksheets have the same seections on every sheet; you can t seect one set of ranges on one worksheet and a different set on another worksheet. To make a quick deetion. Assume that your worksheets incude mutipe references to a saes rep whom you no onger empoy or a product you no onger se. Seect the ces and ranges that refer to this person or product, and then press Deete. A ce content in those ces--in a worksheets incuded in the group--wi be removed. The process of seecting worksheets is caed grouping. It s important to note that you shoud group worksheets for formatting, data entry, or deetions ony if a the worksheets are structured identicay. For exampe, if you group Sheet1 and Sheet2, seect the range B2:B7 on Sheet1, and then switch to Sheet2, you find that the same ce coordinates are seected on Sheet2. If you add a range to the seection whie on Sheet2, the added seection wi be echoed on Sheet1. For this reason, if the sheets aren t structured identicay (everything in the same pace on a sheets), restrict use of this feature to editing content--you can aways press Enter to skip extra ces in the seection. When working with grouped worksheets, you can seect the ranges first and then group the worksheets, or group the worksheets and then make your seections. After a ranges are seected and the worksheets are grouped, you can make content changes, appy formatting, and so on. FIGURE 3.6 Grouped sheets remain grouped unti you ungroup them. Any changes are appied to a the grouped sheets. To group worksheets, start by activating the first worksheet you want in the group. Then hod down the Ctr key whie cicking the sheet tab for each additiona worksheet you want to incude in the group. (If you want to incude a set of contiguous sheets, you can dispay the first sheet, hod down the Shift key, and cick the sheet tab for the ast sheet.) The sheet tabs for grouped worksheets turn white, and a [Group] indicator appears in the tite bar of the workbook window. Grouped worksheets remain grouped unti you cick the sheet tab for an ungrouped sheet or right-cick the sheet tab for one of the grouped sheets and seect Ungroup Sheets from the resuting context menu. After sheets are grouped, you can switch freey between the grouped sheets by cicking the sheet tab for the sheet you want to see. Notice that if you seect a new range on the active sheet, it s simutaneousy seected on a other sheets in the group (see Figure 3.7). FIGURE 3.7 Seecting ces and ranges on grouped sheets makes it easy to edit and format ces within identica sheets. If you group a sheet you didn t want, simpy Ctr+cick the sheet tab to remove it from the group. fie://j:\prodinfo\members\ma\iq969.htm 3/23/01

6 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Exce Lesson 3 - Seecting and Naming Ces and.. Page 6 of 8 Naming Ranges for Fast Access After you enter some or a of a worksheet s content, you may find it easier to refer to ces and bocks of seected ces by name rather than ce address. Just as it s easier to find an empoyee by asking the receptionist for him or her by name than to comb the buiding on foot, ooking in each cube or office, so finding ces and ranges by name is faster and easier than trying to find and remember ce addresses. Exce gives you the capacity to name individua ces or ce ranges so that you can find data by a ogica name, and refer to the ces ranges in formuas, as described in Chapter 12, "Working with Named Ranges." It s a good idea to go through arge or compex worksheets and name a the key ces or ranges to which you think you go often. Don t wait unti you wish you had created a name for an oftenaccessed ce! To name a ce or range of ces, foow these steps: 1. Seect the ce(s), and choose Insert, Name, Define. This opens the Define Name diaog box, as shown in Figure 3.8. FIGURE 3.8 Type the range name and cick Add to insert severa ranges in one session, or OK if you want to add ony one range name. 2. In the Names in Workbook text box, type a name for the seected ce(s). 3. Cick OK. You can type a range of ces or a singe ce address into the Refers To box. This technique enabes you to enter severa ranges, cicking Add after naming each one, without having to repeatedy cose and then reopen the diaog box after seecting ces or ranges with the mouse. A quick method for creating named ranges is to seect the ce/range, and, using the Name box on the Formua bar, highight the dispayed ce address and repace it by typing a name for the ce/range. Press Enter to create the name Range names cannot begin with a number, resembe a ce address (such as FQ1999), or contain spaces or punctuation. You can use underscores in ieu of spaces, such as First_Quarter_1999. Athough Exce aows range names to contain hundreds of characters, sticking to short names makes them easier to remember and use in formuas. Getting an error message when you type a range name? See "Range Naming Errors" in the Troubeshooting section at the end of this chapter. When seecting ces to be named, they needn t be a contiguous range--use the Ctr key to seect severa individua noncontiguous ces or ranges, and then give the group of seected ces a singe name (see Figure 3.9). This coud be used to find and sum various saes totas throughout the worksheet, for exampe, giving them one name, such as PAC Q s First Month. fie://j:\prodinfo\members\ma\iq969.htm 3/23/01

7 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Exce Lesson 3 - Seecting and Naming Ces and.. Page 7 of 8 FIGURE 3.9 Seect singe ces or random ranges throughout the worksheet and then appy one name to the entire seection. After you ve added a named range, you can access it by opening the Name box on the Formua bar, or by pressing F3 to open the Paste Name diaog box. Figure 3.10 shows a series of named ranges. FIGURE 3.10 Seect a range name from the ist, and the ce or range it represents is immediatey seected. To remove a named range, choose Insert, Name, Define, and seect the named range from the ist. Cick the Deete button, and then cick OK. Troubeshooting Coor Seection Looks Odd When I seect ces or ranges, the background coor of my worksheet seems to go haywire. If your worksheet incudes coored background fis or patterns, a range seection may dispay in an odd coor. The dispayed coor change is merey the temporary resut of seecting the ces. Cicking away from the seected range to deseect it wi dispay the ces with their norma formatting. Can t Copy Mutipe Seections After seecting severa noncontiguous ranges, I try to copy them to the Cipboard but get the message That command cannot be used on mutipe seections. Exce can copy noncontiguous ranges ony if they re the same size and shape. If you need to copy a the information in the various seections but nothing between, and you can t arrange the worksheet to make that data contiguous, try this trick: Appy a background fi or specia format to the ces you don t want (a bright yeow or green fi works nicey). Then copy a contiguous bock containing a the ces you do want as we as those you don t, and paste the copy into pace in its target position. The ces that then need to be ceared are easiy visibe because of the fi or specia format. Seect those ces and choose Edit, Cear, A. Range Naming Errors When I type the range name I want to create in the Name box, Exce dispays the message You must enter a vaid reference you want to go to, or type a vaid name for the seection. You re probaby attempting to use a space in the range name or begin the range name with a number. Unfortunatey, names such as 1999 Disbursements are not aowed. For this type of name, put the year at the end, and repace the space with an underscore: Disbursements_1999. Exce in Practice fie://j:\prodinfo\members\ma\iq969.htm 3/23/01

8 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Exce Lesson 3 - Seecting and Naming Ces and.. Page 8 of 8 Exce s toos for seecting and naming ranges can be used to significanty reduce your setup time. Figure 3.11 shows a set of identica worksheets, created by grouping the sheets and seecting sections of their content. Simpe formats were appied once, and that one action formatted a the sheets. This type of uniformity decreases the earning curve for users who have to work with the worksheets and makes it easier for you to buid worksheets quicky and consistenty. FIGURE 3.11 These sheets were grouped, and seections in a three sheets were simutaneousy formatted to achieve a consistent ook throughout the workbook. fie://j:\prodinfo\members\ma\iq969.htm 3/23/01

file://j:\macmillancomputerpublishing\chapters\in073.html 3/22/01

$file://j:\macmillancomputerpublishing\chapters\in073.html 3/22/01$ Page 1 of 15 Chapter 9 Chapter 9: Deveoping the Logica Data Mode The information requirements and business rues provide the information to produce the entities, attributes, and reationships in ogica mode.