What Keyboard Shortcut Selects An Entire Document

Bottom Line: Salvage time by learning seven ways to select cells and ranges using keyboard shortcuts.

Skill Level: Beginner

Download the Excel File

If yous'd like to follow along with the video using the same worksheet I'k using, you lot can download it here:

Navigating Cells And Ranges.xlsx (24.5 KB)

Keyboard Shortcuts to Select Cells

Who doesn't love a keyboard shortcut to help make things faster and easier? In this mail service I'd similar to share 7 keyboard shortcuts that will help brand navigating your worksheet a ameliorate feel. If you ever detect yourself scrolling down thousands of rows with the mouse, so these shortcuts volition relieve you time.

1. Select the Last Used Cell

The keyboard shortcut to select the last used jail cell on a sheet is: Ctrl+End

No thing where you get-go from in your worksheet, Ctrl+End will have y'all to the intersection of the concluding used column and final used row.

ctrl+end takes you to the intersection of the outermost colun and row that have been used

Sometimes, when you apply this shortcut, Excel volition motion your selection so that is further to the right or farther down than the data range you can see.

Ctrl+end you may have do delete previously used rows or columns

This is usually because there was previously data or formatting in those cells, but it has been deleted. You tin can clear that by deleting any of those previously used rows or columns and so saving your workbook. (Sometimes just hitting Salve volition do the trick, without having to delete any cells.)

Ctrl+End will select the final used cell on the canvas. However, at that place could be shapes (charts, slicers, etc.) on the sheet below or to the right of that jail cell. So make sure your sheet doesn't comprise shapes earlier deleting those rows/columns.

2. Select the First Visible Cell

The keyboard shortcut to select the first visible jail cell on a sheet is: Ctrl+Home

Using Ctrl+Home volition always take y'all to the beginning visible cell (excluding hidden rows/columns) on the sheet, unless your sheet has Freeze Panes.

Ctrl+Home takes you to cell A1

Freeze Panes lock rows and columns in place so that they are always visible, no matter where you lot coil to in the worksheet. Freeze panes are specially helpful when you want to see titles, headers, or product names that aid to identify your data.

If yous are using Freeze Panes, the Ctrl+Home shortcut will take you to the kickoff prison cell in your sheet that is across the Freeze Panes. In this example, Row 1 and Column A are frozen, and so the Ctrl+Domicile shortcut takes us to Jail cell B2.

Crtl+Home using freeze panes

3. Select Last Cell in Contiguous Range

The keyboard shortcut to select the concluding cell in a contiguous range is:

Ctrl+Pointer Central

Using Ctrl along with your arrow keys allows you to motility to the outset or cease of contiguous data in a row or column. For example, if you start at the superlative of a cavalcade and then printing Ctrl+? you lot will jump to the last jail cell in that column before an empty cell. Repeating this procedure will move you farther downwards the column to but earlier the next bare jail cell.

5-Ctrl+Arrow Keys to Navigate Cells 2

Ctrl+? will reverse that process in the upward direction. And of course, belongings Ctrl while using the left or correct arrow cardinal accomplishes the same action horizontally instead of vertically.

An Culling Using the Mouse

Y'all tin can achieve this same action using your mouse instead of the keyboard, if you lot like. Just hover over the lesser line of the cell until the cursor turns into and arrow with crosshairs (see beneath). Then double-click. That will bound you downwardly to the terminal cell in the face-to-face fix of information for that column.

Mouse shortcut - Cursor change to crosshairs

iv. Add Cells to the Selected Range

The keyboard shortcut to add cells to the selected range is: Shift+Arrow Key

If you use Shift along with your arrow keys, you can select multiple cells, ane at a time. For case, if y'all beginning in any cell and press Shift+?, it highlights the original jail cell and the cell just below it.

Shift+Arrow key to select multiple cells

The same idea applies to the left, right, or upwardly arrows. And if yous continue the Shift primal held down, you can proceed to motility over multiple cells in multiple directions to select an entire range of data.

v. Select Multiple Cells in Contiguous Range

The keyboard shortcut to select multiple cells in a face-to-face range is:

Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Key

Using the same process as in Shortcut 3, but adding the Shift fundamental, allows yous to select multiple cells simultaneously. It volition highlight everything from the cell you started in to the cell that you lot jump to.

Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Keys select an entire range of cells

Equally before, the same concept applies using arrows that go in other directions.

This process but selects cells that come before a blank cell. Even so, sometimes a column can take many blank cells. If so, this method may not be your best option. To select large amounts of data containing many blanks, I recommend checking out this postal service for some alternatives:

two Keyboard Shortcuts to Select a Column with Blank Cells

6. Select All Cells to Get-go or Last Cell

Shortcuts 1 and 2 taught the states how to jump from whatever jail cell we are in to the offset corner (Home) or ending corner (End) of our data range. Calculation Shift into the mix merely selects all of the cells in between those jumping points.

So if, for example, we get-go in Prison cell C5 and Printing Ctrl+Shift+Domicile, the following range will be selected.

The keyboard shortcut to all cells to from the active cell to the first visible cell is:

Ctrl+Shift+Domicile

Ctrl+Shift+Home

If instead we were to begin at C5 and printing Ctrl+Shift+End, this range of data will be selected:

Ctrl+Shift+End

The keyboard shortcut to all cells to from the active cell to the last used cell is:

Ctrl+Shift+End

vii. Select All Cells

The keyboard shortcut to all cells in the current used range is:Ctrl+A

Printing Ctrl+A a 2d time to select all cells on the sheet.

If your spreadsheet has multiple blocks of data, Excel does a pretty good job of selecting the cake of data that is surrounding your cell when you lot printing Ctrl+A. Yous'll detect in the example below that the Shipper Name information is not selected. This is because there are bare columns between it and the block of information that surrounds our original prison cell, B3.

Ctrl+A to select all cells in a range

If your intention is to select all of the cells on the sheet, you lot but press Ctrl+A a 2nd time and your unabridged worksheet volition be highlighted.

The keyboard shortcut to all cells on the sheet is:Ctrl+A,A

Better, Faster, Smarter

I hope you are able to commit some of these shortcuts to retention. Equally you put them into practise you'll be able to navigate and maintain your worksheets more than efficiently and quickly.

Have a keyboard shortcut that y'all want to share? Leave a comment below. I volition do my best to include it in a follow-up video so that everyone can benefit.