Office 2007 - Excel

Lesson 12: Cell and Cell Ranges (cont…)

12/83 Lessons 

What is a Cell Range?

Let me first explain what we mean by a range of cells, also called Range in Excel.
A range is a selection of cells, adjacent or non-adjacent.
With the emphasis on all.
This selection of cells is considered as a set.

Select Range

We can select a cell range in various ways.
Thus as mentioned above, a range can be made up of adjacent cells and/or non-adjacent cells.
To select adjacent cells, click the first cell and drag the mouse pointer to the last cell.
Or just click the first cell, hold the Shift key down, and click the last cell.
It does not matter how you do it.
For non-adjacent cells, select the first cell or cells, hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard down, and select the second cell or range of cells.
You can select as many cells that you want.

In the picture below you have on the left site a selection of adjacent cells.
And on the right, a selection of non-adjacent cells. It is somewhat harder to see because Excel uses a light blue color for selected cells.
Both of them we call ranges in our Excel spreadsheet.

Naming a Range

To name a Range we first select the range, give an appropriate name in the “Name box”, and click the Enter key on our keyboard.

Why do we give a range a name?
Because we can use it in a formula instead of specifying a cell reference. For example A4: A7.
We will see more on that later.
Just remember how to give a name to a range.

Entering Data in a Range

When we first select a Range, and then enter our data, Excel will keep the scope within our range.
For example, we have entered data in cell B4 and click the Enter key, the next cell that is selected is cell B5, this continues until we reach the bottom cell in our range.
In this case, cell B7, if we click the Enter key again, then cell C4 is selected in our selected range and it goes on until the last cell in range, cell E7.
If you click Enter key, it returns to the first cell in the selected range, that is cell B4.

Another tip:
If you want all cells in the range with the same value hold the Ctrl key down on your keyboard, while you press the Enter key.

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