Microsoft Office

Entering and Editing Worksheet Data 3
FIGURE 3.3
While editing a cell, the Formula bar displays two new icons.
X icon
Check Mark icon
When you begin editing a cell, the insertion point appears as a vertical bar, and you can move the insertion
point by using the arrow keys. Use Home to move the insertion point to the beginning of the cell and use
End to move the insertion point to the end. You can add new characters at the location of the insertion
point. To select multiple characters, press Shift while you use the arrow keys. You also can use the mouse to
select characters while you’re editing a cell. Just click and drag the mouse pointer over the characters that
you want to select.
Learning some handy data-entry techniques
You can simplify the process of entering information into your Excel worksheets and make your work go
quite a bit faster by using a number of useful tricks, described in the following sections.
Automatically moving the cell pointer after entering data
By default, Excel automatically moves the cell pointer to the next cell down when you press the Enter key
after entering data into a cell. To change this setting, choose Office ➪ Excel Options and click the Advanced
tab (see Figure 3.4). The check box that controls this behavior is labeled After Pressing Enter, Move
Selection. You can also specify the direction in which the cell pointer moves (down, left, up, or right).
Your choice is completely a matter of personal preference. I prefer to keep this option turned off. When
entering data, I use the arrow keys rather than the Enter key (see the next section).
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