Storing Stuff in a Spreadsheet

Every cell can contain a number, a label, or a formula. To type anything into a spreadsheet, you must first select or click in the cell (or cells) and then type a number or text.

Typing data into a single cell

To type data in a single cell, follow these steps:

• Choose one of the following to select a single cell:
  
  
  • Click a cell.
    
    
  • Press the up/down/right/left arrow keys to highlight a cell.
  
  
• Type a number (such as 34.29 or 198), a label (such as Tax Returns), or a formula.

Typing data in multiple cells

After you type data in a cell, you can press one of the following four keystrokes to select a different cell:

• Enter:
  Selects the cell below in the same column
  
  
• Tab:
  Selects the cell to the right in the same row
  
  
• Shift+Enter:
  Selects the cell above in the same column
  
  
• Shift+Tab:
  Selects the cell to the left in the same row

If you type data in cell A1 and press Enter, Excel selects the next cell below, which is A2. If you type data in A2 and press Tab, Excel selects the cell to the right, which is B2.

However, what if you want to type data in a cell such as A1 and then have Excel select the next cell to the right (B1)? Or what if you want to type data in cells A1 and A2 but then jump back up to type additional data in cells B1 and B2?

To make doing this easy, Excel lets you select a range of cells, which essentially tells Excel, “See all the cells I just highlighted? I only want to type data in those cells.” After you select multiple cells, you can type data and press Enter. Excel selects the next cell down in that same column. When Excel reaches the last cell in the column, it selects the top cell of the column to the right.

To select multiple cells for typing data in, follow these steps:

1. Highlight multiple cells by choosing one of the following:
   
   
   • Move the mouse pointer over a cell, hold down the left mouse button, and drag (move) the mouse to highlight multiple cells. Release the left mouse button when you have selected enough cells.
     
     
   • Hold down the Shift key and press the up/down/right/left arrow keys to highlight multiple cells. Release the Shift key when you have selected enough cells. Excel selects the cell that appears in the upper-left corner of your selected cells.
   
   
2. Type a number, label, or formula and then press Press Enter. Excel selects the cell directly below the previous cell. If the previous cell appeared at the bottom of the selected column, Excel highlights the top cell in the column that appears to the right.
   
   
3. Repeat Steps 2 until you fill your selected cells with data.
   
   
4. Click outside the selected cells or press an arrow key to tell Excel not to select the cells any more.

Typing in sequences with AutoFill

If you need to type the names of successive months or days in a row or column (such as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and so on), Excel offers a shortcut to save you from typing all the day or month names yourself. With this shortcut, you just type one month or day and then drag the mouse to highlight all the adjacent cells. Then Excel types the rest of the month or day names in those cells automatically.

To use this shortcut, follow these steps:

1. Click a cell and type a day (like Monday or just Mon) or a month (like January or just Jan).
   The Fill Handle, a block box, appears in the bottom-right corner of the cell.
   You can also type in a sequence of numbers in Step 1. So if you typed the numbers 2, 4, and 6 in adjacent cells, highlighted all these adjacent cells, and grabbed the Fill Handle, Excel is smart enough to detect the pattern and display the numbers 8, 10, and 12 in the next three adjacent cells.
   
   
2. Move the mouse pointer over the Fill Handle until the mouse pointer turns into a black crosshair icon.
   
   
3. Hold down the left mouse button and drag (move) the mouse down a column or across the row. As you drag the mouse, Excel automatically types in the remaining day or month names.