Selecting ranges

To perform an operation on a range of cells in a worksheet, you must first select the range. For example, if you want to make the text bold for a range of cells, you must select the range and then choose Home Font Bold (or press Ctrl+B).

When you select a range, the cells appear highlighted. The exception is the active cell, which remains its normal color. Figure 4.1 shows an example of a selected range (A5:D7) in a worksheet. Cell A5, the active cell, is selected but not highlighted.

You can select a range in several ways:

• Press the left mouse button and drag, highlighting the range. Then release the mouse button. If you drag to the end of the window, the worksheet will scroll.
• Press the Shift key while you use the navigation keys to select a range.
• Press F8 and then move the cell pointer with the navigation keys to highlight the range. Press F8 again to return the navigation keys to normal movement.
• Type the cell or range address into the Name box (located to the left of the Formula bar) and press Enter. Excel selects the cell or range that you specified.
• Choose Home Editing Find & Select Go To (or press F5) and enter a range's address manually in the Go To dialog box. When you click OK, Excel selects the cells in the range that you specified.

Selecting complete rows and columns

Often, you'll need to select an entire row or column. For example, you may want to apply the same numeric format or the same alignment options to an entire row or column. You can select entire rows and columns in much the same manner as you select ranges:

• Click the row or column border to select a single row or column.
• To select multiple adjacent rows or columns, click a row or column border and drag to highlight additional rows or columns.
• To select multiple (nonadjacent) rows or columns, press Ctrl while you click the row or column borders that you want.
• Press Ctrl+spacebar to select a column. The column of the active cell (or columns of the selected cells) is highlighted.
• Press Shift+spacebar to select a row. The row of the active cell (or rows of the selected cells) is highlighted.

Selecting noncontiguous ranges

Most of the time, the ranges that you select are contiguous — a single rectangle of cells. Excel also enables you to work with noncontiguous ranges, which consist of two or more ranges (or single cells) that aren't necessarily adjacent to each other. Selecting noncontiguous ranges is also known as a multiple selection. If you want to apply the same formatting to cells in different areas of your worksheet, one approach is to make a multiple selection. When the appropriate cells or ranges are selected, the formatting that you select is applied to them all. Figure 4.2 shows a noncontiguous range selected in a worksheet. Three ranges are selected: A6:F6. A13:F14, and A17:F19.

You can select a noncontiguous range in several ways:

• Select the first range (or cell). Then press and hold Ctrl as you click and drag the mouse to highlight additional cells or ranges.
• From the keyboard, select a range as described previously (using F8 or the Shift key). Then press Shift+F8 to select another range without canceling the previous range selections.
• Enter the range (or cell) address in the Name box and press Enter. Separate each range address with a comma.
• Choose Home Editing Find & Select Go To (or press F5) to display the Go To dialog box. Enter the range (or cell) address in the Reference box, and separate each range address with a comma. Click OK, and Excel selects the ranges.

Selecting multisheet ranges

In addition to two-dimensional ranges on a single worksheet, ranges can extend across ­multiple worksheets to be three-dimensional ranges.

Suppose that you have a workbook set up to track budgets. One approach is to use a separate worksheet for each department, making it easy to organize the data. You can click a sheet tab to view the information for a particular department.

Figure 4.3 shows a simplified example. The workbook has four sheets: Totals, Operations, Marketing, and Manufacturing. The sheets are laid out identically. The only difference is the values. The Totals sheet contains formulas that compute the sum of the corresponding items in the three departmental worksheets.

Assume that you want to apply formatting to the sheets — for example, make the column headings bold with background shading. One (albeit not-so-efficient) approach is to format the cells in each worksheet separately. A better technique is to select a multisheet range and format the cells in all the sheets simultaneously. The following is a step-by-step example of multisheet formatting using the workbook shown in Figure 4.3:

1. Activate the Totals worksheet by clicking its tab.
2. Select the range B3:F3.
3. Press Shift and click the Manufacturing sheet tab. This step selects all worksheets between the active worksheet (Totals) and the sheet tab that you click — in essence, a three-dimensional range of cells (see Figure 4.4). When multiple sheets are selected, the workbook window's title bar displays [Group] to remind you that you've selected a group of sheets and that you're in Group mode.

   

4. Choose Home Font Bold and then choose Home Font Fill Color to apply a colored background. Excel applies the formatting to the selected range across the selected sheets.
5. Click one of the other sheet tabs. This step selects the sheet and cancels Group mode; [Group] is no longer displayed in the title bar.

When a workbook is in Group mode, any changes that you make to cells in one worksheet also apply to the corresponding cells in all the other grouped worksheets. You can use this to your advantage when you want to set up a group of identical worksheets because any labels, data, formatting, or formulas you enter are automatically added to the same cells in all the grouped worksheets.

In general, selecting a multisheet range is a simple two-step process: select the range in one sheet, and then select the worksheets to include in the range. To select a group of contiguous worksheets, you can press Shift and click the sheet tab of the last worksheet that you want to include in the selection. To select individual worksheets, press Ctrl and click the sheet tab of each worksheet that you want to select. If all the worksheets in a workbook aren't laid out the same, you can skip the sheets that you don't want to format. When you make the selection, the sheet tabs of the selected sheets display in bold with underlined text, and Excel displays [Group] in the title bar.

Selecting special types of cells

As you use Excel, you may need to locate specific types of cells in your worksheets. For example, wouldn't it be handy to be able to locate every cell that contains a formula — or perhaps all the formula cells that depend on the active cell? Excel provides an easy way to locate these and many other special types of cells: select a range, and choose Home Editing Find & Select Go to Special to display the Go to Special dialog box, shown in Figure 4.5.

After you make your choice in the dialog box, Excel selects the qualifying subset of cells in the current selection. Often, this subset of cells is a multiple selection. If no cells qualify, Excel lets you know with the message No cells were found.

Table 4.1 offers a description of the options available in the Go to Special dialog box. Some of the options are very useful.

Option	What it does
Comments	Selects the cells that contain a cell comment.
Constants	Selects all nonempty cells that don't contain formulas. Use the check boxes under the Formulas option to choose which types of nonformula cells to include.
Formulas	Selects cells that contain formulas. Qualify this by selecting the type of result: numbers, text, logical values (TRUE or FALSE), or errors.
Blanks	Selects all empty cells. If a single cell is selected when the dialog box displays, this option selects the empty cells in the used area of the worksheet.
Current Region	Selects a rectangular range of cells around the active cell. This range is determined by surrounding blank rows and columns. You can also press Ctrl+Shift+*.
Current Array	Selects the entire array. (See Chapter 17, “Introducing Array Formulas,” for more on arrays.)
Objects	Selects all embedded objects on the worksheet, including charts and graphics.
Row Differences	Analyzes the selection and selects cells that are different from other cells in each row.
Column Differences	Analyzes the selection and selects the cells that are different from other cells in each column.
Precedents	Selects cells that are referred to in the formulas in the active cell or selection (limited to the active sheet). You can select either direct precedents or precedents at any level. (See Chapter 31, “Making Your Worksheets Error Free,” for more information.)
Dependents	Selects cells with formulas that refer to the active cell or selection (limited to the active sheet). You can select either direct dependents or dependents at any level. (See Chapter 31 for more information.)
Last Cell	Selects the bottom-right cell in the worksheet that contains data or formatting. For this option, the entire worksheet is examined, even if a range is selected when the dialog box displays.
Visible Cells Only	Selects only visible cells in the selection. This option is useful when dealing with a filtered list or a table.
Conditional Formats	Selects cells that have a conditional format applied (by choosing Home Styles Conditional Formatting). The All option selects all such cells. The Same option selects only the cells that have the same conditional formatting as the active cell.
Data Validation	Selects cells that are set up for data entry validation (by choosing Data Date Tools Data Validation). The All option selects all such cells. The Same option selects only the cells that have the same validation rules as the active cell.

Selecting cells by searching

Another way to select cells is to choose Home Editing Find & Select Find (or press Ctrl+F), which allows you to select cells by their contents. The Find and Replace dialog box is shown in Figure 4.6. This figure illustrates additional options that are available when you click the Options button.

Enter the text that you're looking for; then click Find All. The dialog box expands to display all the cells that match your search criteria. For example, Figure 4.7 shows the dialog box after Excel has located all cells that contain the text widget. You can click an item in the list, and the screen will scroll so that you can view the cell in context. To select all the cells in the list, first select any single item in the list. Then press Ctrl+A to select them all.

The Find and Replace dialog box supports two wildcard characters:

Wildcard characters also work with values when the Match Entire Cell Contents option is selected. For example, searching for 3* locates all cells that contain a value that begins with 3. Searching for 1?9 locates all three-digit entries that begin with 1 and end with 9. Searching for *00 locates values that end with two zeros.

If your searches don't seem to be working correctly, double-check these three options (which sometimes have a way of changing on their own):

• Match Case: If this check box is selected, the case of the text must match exactly. For example, searching for smith does not locate Smith.
• Match Entire Cell Contents: If this check box is selected, a match occurs if the cell contains only the search string (and nothing else). For example, searching for Excel doesn't locate a cell that contains Microsoft Excel. When using wildcard characters, an exact match is not required.
• Look In: This drop-down list has three options: Values, Formulas, and Comments. If, for example, Values is selected, searching for 900 doesn't find a cell that contains 900 if that value is generated by a formula (unless the formula itself contains 900).

Copying by using Ribbon commands

Choosing Home Clipboard Copy transfers a copy of the selected cell or range to the Windows Clipboard and the Office Clipboard. After performing the copy part of this operation, select the cell that will hold the copy and choose Home Clipboard Paste.

Instead of choosing Home Clipboard Paste, you can just activate the destination cell and press Enter. If you use this technique, Excel removes the copied information from the Clipboard so that it can't be pasted again.

If you're copying a range, you don't need to select an entire same-sized range before you click the Paste button. You only need to activate the upper-left cell in the destination range.

Copying by using shortcut menu commands

If you prefer, you can use the following shortcut menu commands for copying and pasting:

• Right-click the range and choose Copy (or Cut) from the shortcut menu to copy the selected cells to the Clipboard.
• Right-click and choose Paste from the shortcut menu that appears to paste the Clipboard contents to the selected cell or range.

For more control over how the pasted information appears, right-click the destination cell and use one of the paste icons in the shortcut menu (see Figure 4.8).

Instead of using Paste, you can just activate the destination cell and press Enter. If you use this technique, Excel removes the copied information from the Clipboard so that it can't be pasted again.

Copying by using shortcut keys

The copy and paste operations also have shortcut keys associated with them:

• Ctrl+C copies the selected cells to both the Windows Clipboard and the Office Clipboard.
• Ctrl+X cuts the selected cells to both the Windows Clipboard and the Office Clipboard.
• Ctrl+V pastes the Windows Clipboard contents to the selected cell or range.

Copying or moving by using drag-and-drop

Excel also enables you to copy or move a cell or range by dragging. Unlike other methods of copying and moving, dragging and dropping does not place any information on either the Windows Clipboard or the Office Clipboard.

To copy using drag-and-drop, select the cell or range that you want to copy and then press Ctrl and move the mouse to one of the selection's borders. (The mouse pointer is augmented with a small plus sign.) Then drag the selection to its new location while you continue to press the Ctrl key. The original selection remains behind, and Excel makes a new copy when you release the mouse button.

To move a range using drag-and-drop, don't press Ctrl while dragging the border.

Copying to adjacent cells

Often, you need to copy a cell to an adjacent cell or range. This type of copying is quite common when you're working with formulas. For example, if you're working on a budget, you might create a formula to add the values in column B. You can use the same formula to add the values in the other columns. Rather than re-enter the formula, you can copy it to the adjacent cells.

Excel provides additional options for copying to adjacent cells. To use these commands, activate the cell that you're copying and extend the cell selection to include the cells that you're copying to. Then issue the appropriate command from the following list for one-step copying:

• Home Editing Fill Down (or Ctrl+D) copies the cell to the selected range below.
• Home Editing Fill Right (or Ctrl+R) copies the cell to the selected range to the right.
• Home Editing Fill Up copies the cell to the selected range above.
• Home Editing Fill Left copies the cell to the selected range to the left.

None of these commands places information on either the Windows Clipboard or the Office Clipboard.

Copying a range to other sheets

You can use the copy procedures described previously to copy a cell or range to another worksheet, even if the worksheet is in a different workbook. You must, of course, activate the other worksheet before you select the location to which you want to copy.

Excel offers a quicker way to copy a cell or range and paste it to other worksheets in the same workbook:

1. Select the range to copy.
2. Press Ctrl and click the sheet tabs for the worksheets to which you want to copy the information. Excel displays [Group] in the workbook's title bar.
3. Choose Home Editing Fill Across Worksheets. A dialog box appears to ask you what you want to copy (All, Contents, or Formats).
4. Make your choice and then click OK. Excel copies the selected range to the selected worksheets; the new copy occupies the same cells in the selected worksheets as the original occupies in the initial worksheet.

Using the Office Clipboard to paste

Whenever you cut or copy information in an Office program, such as Excel, you can place the data on both the Windows Clipboard and the Office Clipboard. When you copy information to the Office Clipboard, you append the information to the Office Clipboard instead of replacing what is already there. With multiple items stored on the Office Clipboard, you can then paste the items either individually or as a group.

To use the Office Clipboard, you first need to open it. Use the dialog launcher on the bottom right of the Home Clipboard group to toggle the Clipboard task pane on and off.

After you open the Clipboard task pane, select the first cell or range that you want to copy to the Office Clipboard and copy it by using any of the preceding techniques. Repeat this process, selecting the next cell or range that you want to copy. As soon as you copy the information, the Office Clipboard task pane shows you the number of items that you've copied and a brief description (it will hold up to 24 items). Figure 4.9 shows the Office Clipboard with five copied items (four from Excel and one from Word).

When you're ready to paste information, select the cell into which you want to paste information. To paste an individual item, click it in the Clipboard task pane. To paste all the items that you've copied, click the Paste All button (which is at the top of the Clipboard task pane). The items are pasted, one after the other. The Paste All button is probably more useful in Word, for situations in which you copy text from various sources and then paste it all at once.

You can clear the contents of the Office Clipboard by clicking the Clear All button.

The following items about the Office Clipboard and how it functions are worth noting:

• Excel pastes the contents of the Windows Clipboard (the last item you copied to the Office Clipboard) when you paste by choosing Home Clipboard Paste, by pressing Ctrl+V, or by right-clicking and choosing Paste from the shortcut menu.
• The last item that you cut or copied appears on both the Office Clipboard and the Windows Clipboard.
• Pasting from the Office Clipboard also places that item on the Windows Clipboard. If you choose Paste All from the Office Clipboard toolbar, you paste all items stored on the Office Clipboard onto the Windows Clipboard as a single item.
• Clearing the Office Clipboard also clears the Windows Clipboard.

Pasting in special ways

You may not always want to copy everything from the source range to the destination range. For example, you may want to copy only the formula results rather than the formulas themselves. Or you may want to copy the number formats from one range to another without overwriting any existing data or formulas.

To control what is copied into the destination range, choose Home Clipboard Paste and use the drop-down menu shown in Figure 4.10. When you hover your mouse pointer over an icon, you'll see a preview of the pasted information in the destination range. Click the icon to use the selected paste option.

The paste options are

• Paste (P): Pastes the cell's contents, formats, and data validation from the Windows Clipboard.
• Formulas (F): Pastes formulas but not formatting.
• Formulas & Number Formatting (O): Pastes formulas and number formatting only.
• Keep Source Formatting (K): Pastes formulas and all formatting.
• No Borders (B): Pastes everything except borders that appear in the source range.
• Keep Source Column Width (W): Pastes formulas and duplicates the column width of the copied cells.
• Transpose (T): Changes the orientation of the copied range. Rows become columns, and columns become rows. Any formulas in the copied range are adjusted so that they work properly when transposed.
• Merge Conditional Formatting (G): This icon is displayed only when the copied cells contain conditional formatting. When clicked, it merges the copied conditional formatting with any conditional formatting in the destination range.
• Values (V): Pastes the results of formulas. The destination for the copy can be a new range or the original range. In the latter case, Excel replaces the original formulas with their current values.
• Values & Number Formatting (A): Pastes the results of formulas plus the number formatting.
• Values & Source Formatting (E): Pastes the results of formulas plus all formatting.
• Formatting (R): Pastes only the formatting of the source range.
• Paste Link (N): Creates formulas in the destination range that refer to the cells in the copied range.
• Picture (U): Pastes the copied information as a picture.
• Linked Picture (I): Pastes the copied information as a “live” picture that is updated if the source range is changed.
• Paste Special: Displays the Paste Special dialog box (described in the next section).

Using the Paste Special dialog box

For yet another pasting method, choose Home Clipboard Paste Paste Special to display the Paste Special dialog box (see Figure 4.11). You can also right-click and choose Paste Special from the shortcut menu to display this dialog box. This dialog box has several options, which I explain in the following list.

• All: Pastes the cell's contents, formats, and data validation from the Windows Clipboard.
• Formulas: Pastes values and formulas, with no formatting.
• Values: Pastes values and the results of formulas (no formatting). The destination for the copy can be a new range or the original range. In the latter case, Excel replaces the original formulas with their current values.
• Formats: Copies only the formatting.
• Comments: Copies only the cell comments from a cell or range. This option doesn't copy cell contents or formatting.
• Validation: Copies the validation criteria so the same data validation will apply. Data validation is applied by choosing Data Data Tools Data Validation.
• All Using Source Theme: Pastes everything but uses the formatting from the document theme of the source. This option is relevant only if you're pasting information from a different workbook, and the workbook uses a different document theme than the active workbook.
• All Except Borders: Pastes everything except borders that appear in the source range.
• Column Widths: Pastes only column width information.
• Formulas and Number Formats: Pastes all values, formulas, and number formats (but no other formatting).
• Values and Number Formats: Pastes all values and numeric formats but not the formulas themselves.
• All merging conditional formats: Merges the copied conditional formatting with any conditional formatting in the destination range. This option is enabled only when you're copying a range that contains conditional formatting.

In addition, the Paste Special dialog box enables you to perform other operations, described in the following sections.

Transposing a range

The Transpose option in the Paste Special dialog box changes the orientation of the copied range. Rows become columns, and columns become rows. Any formulas in the copied range are adjusted so that they work properly when transposed. Note that you can use this check box with the other options in the Paste Special dialog box. Figure 4.12 shows an example of a horizontal range (A1:D5) that was transposed to a different range (A9:E12).

Creating range names in your workbooks

Excel provides several methods you can use to create range names. Before you begin, however, you should be aware of a few rules:

• Names can't contain spaces. You may want to use an underscore character to simulate a space (such as Annual_Total).
• You can use any combination of letters and numbers, but the name must begin with a letter, underscore, or backslash. A name can't begin with a number (such as 3rdQuarter) or look like a cell address (such as QTR3). If these are desirable names, though, you can precede the name with an underscore or a backslash: for example, _3rd Quarter and QTR3.
• Symbols — except for underscores, backslashes, and periods — aren't allowed.
• Names are limited to 255 characters, but it's a good practice to keep names as short as possible yet still meaningful.

Using the New Name dialog box

For more control over naming cells and ranges, use the New Name dialog box. Start by selecting the cell or range that you want to name. Then choose Formulas Defined Names Define Name. Excel displays the New Name dialog box, shown in Figure 4.13. Note that this is a resizable dialog box. Click and drag a border to change the dimensions.

Type a name in the Name text field (or use the name that Excel proposes, if any). The selected cell or range address appears in the Refers To text field. Use the Scope drop-down list to indicate the scope for the name. The scope indicates where the name will be valid, and it's either the entire workbook or the worksheet in which the name is defined. If you like, you can add a comment that describes the named range or cell. Click OK to add the name to your workbook and close the dialog box.

Using the Create Names from Selection dialog box

You may have a worksheet that contains text that you want to use for names for adjacent cells or ranges. For example, you may want to use the text in column A to create names for the corresponding values in column B. Excel makes this task easy.

To create names by using adjacent text, start by selecting the name text and the cells that you want to name. (These items can be individual cells or ranges of cells.) The names must be adjacent to the cells that you're naming. (A multiple selection is allowed.) Then choose Formulas Defined Names Create from Selection. Excel displays the Create Names from Selection dialog box, shown in Figure 4.14.

The check marks in the Create Names from Selection dialog box are based on Excel's analysis of the selected range. For example, if Excel finds text in the first row of the selection, it proposes that you create names based on the top row. If Excel didn't guess correctly, you can change the check boxes. Click OK, and Excel creates the names. Using the data in Figure 4.14, Excel creates twelve names: January for cell B1, February for cell B2, and so on.

Managing names

A workbook can have any number of named cells and ranges. If your workbook has many names, you should know about the Name Manager, shown in Figure 4.15.

The Name Manager appears when you choose Formulas Defined Names Name Manager (or press Ctrl+F3). The Name Manager has the following features:

• Displays information about each name in the workbook: You can resize the Name Manager dialog box, widen the columns to show more information, and even rearrange the order of the columns. You can also click a column heading to sort the information by the column.
• Allows you to filter the displayed names: Clicking the Filter button lets you show only those names that meet certain criteria. For example, you can view only the worksheet-level names.
• Provides quick access to the New Name dialog box: Click the New button to create a new name without closing the Name Manager.
• Lets you edit names: To edit a name, select it in the list and then click the Edit button. You can change the name itself, modify the Refers To range, or edit the comment.
• Lets you quickly delete unneeded names: To delete a name, select it in the list and click Delete.

If you delete the rows or columns that contain named cells or ranges, the names contain an invalid reference. For example, if cell A1 on Sheet1 is named Interest and you delete row 1 or column A, the name Interest then refers to =Sheet1!#REF! (that is, to an erroneous reference). If you use the name Interest in a formula, the formula displays #REF.

Formatting comments

If you don't like the default look of cell comments, you can make some changes. Right-click the cell and choose Edit Comment. Select the text in the comment and use the commands of the Font and the Alignment groups (on the Home tab) to make changes to the comment's appearance.

For even more formatting options, right-click the comment's border and choose Format Comment from the shortcut menu. Excel responds by displaying the Format Comment dialog box, which allows you to change many aspects of its appearance, including color, border, and margins.

Changing a comment's shape

Cell comments are rectangular, but they don't have to be. To change the shape of a cell comment, add a command to your Quick Access toolbar:

1. Right-click the Quick Access toolbar and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar. The Quick Access Toolbar section of the Excel Options dialog box appears.
2. From the Choose Commands From drop-down list, select Drawing Tools | Format Tab.
3. From the list on the left, select Change Shape, and then click Add.
4. Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box.

After you perform these steps, your Quick Access toolbar has a new Change Shape icon.

To change the shape of a comment, make sure that it's visible (right-click the cell and select Edit Comment). Then click the comment's border to select it as a Shape (or Ctrl+click the comment to select it as a Shape). Click the Change Shape button on the Quick Access toolbar and choose a new shape for the comment. Figure 4.18 shows a cell comment with a nonstandard shape.

Reading comments

To read all comments in a workbook, choose Review Comments Next. Keep clicking Next to cycle through all the comments in a workbook. Choose Review Comments Previous to view the comments in reverse order.

Printing comments

Normally, when you print a worksheet that contains cell comments, the comments are not printed. If you would like to print the comments, though, here's how:

1. Click the dialog box launcher in the Page Layout Page Setup group. This is the small icon to the right of the Page Setup group name. Clicking this icon displays the Page Setup dialog box.
2. In the Page Setup dialog box, click the Sheet tab.
3. Make your choice from the Comments drop-down control: At End of Sheet or As Displayed on Sheet (see Figure 4.19).

   

4. Click OK to close the Page Setup dialog box or click the Print button to print the worksheet.

Hiding and showing comments

If you want all cell comments to be visible (regardless of the location of the cell pointer), choose Review Comments Show All Comments. This command is a toggle; select it again to hide all cell comments.

To toggle the display of an individual comment, select its cell and then choose Review Comments Show/Hide Comment.

Selecting comments

To quickly select all cells in a worksheet that contain a comment, choose Home Editing Find & Select Go to Special. Then choose the Comments option and click OK.

Editing comments

To edit the text in a comment, activate the cell, right-click, and then choose Edit Comment from the shortcut menu. Or select the cell and press Shift+F2. After you make your changes, click any cell.

Deleting comments

To delete a cell comment, activate the cell that contains the comment and then choose Review Comments Delete. Or right-click and then choose Delete Comment from the shortcut menu.