entering Data and Navigating Spreadsheets

Module 5.1.2: entering Data and Navigating Spreadsheets

Use the arrow keys to move one cell at a time among the column’s and rows of the spreadsheet. The Up and Down arrows move up and down columns. The left and Right arrows move across rows. After typing data in a cell, pressing any of the arrow keys will conserve that data in the cell and move the focus to the next cell in the direction that you just arrowed. You can also press the Tab key to move one cell to the right, equivalent to pressing the Right arrow key. In addition, pressing the Enter key will conserve the data and move the cursor one cell below. If you type in data and press the Escape key, none of the data you just typed will be conserved. If you sense that you have made a typing error, immediately press the Escape key to prevent replacing correct data with the mistaken keystroke. Failing to do this is a common frustration for beginners. From anywhere on a spreadsheet, pressing Control Home moves the focus to cell A1, the top left corner of the spreadsheet. Pressing Control End places the focus on the cell that is the intersection of the right-most column with at least one cell containing data, and the bottom-most row with at least one cell containing data. For example, if the right-most cell with data is F32 and the bottom-most cell with data is A 47, pressing Control End will place focus on cell F47. This keystroke is especially useful for exploring a spreadsheet that you did not prepare yourself. If pressing Control End lands the cursor in cell F47, you know that all data in the sheet are located somewhere between A1 and F47. There are no data to the right of column F, nor below row 47. While using the four arrow keys to navigate one cell at a time is useful for moving around in small areas, navigate quickly over large blocks of filled and unfilled cells by pressing the Control key in combination with the four arrow keys. This is referred to as “navigating by region.” A region is a range of cells that contain data and are bordered by blank cells. It is synonymous with a data range.