Datasheet
34
Chapter 1
Navigating in Excel and Understanding the Interface
Selecting contiguous ranges is fairly straightforward. However, to select noncontiguous
ranges, you must use some keyboard combinations. Excel will not let you cut or copy non-
contiguous cells; however, you can delete them or format them all at one time, so there are still
many uses for noncontiguous selections. Exercise 1.18 shows you what happens when you try
to cut or copy noncontiguous selections.
11. Move back to the March Sales sheet and you’ll see that the data you cut is gone.
12. Go to the 1st Qtr Sales sheet and select (highlight) the range B3:E3 (which may already
be selected because pasting it there was the last action you did on that sheet). With that
range selected, press the Delete key on your keyboard to remove it.
13. Select the range A3:A12 using an alternative keyboard technique: Click cell A3 to select
it, then release your mouse button; then hold down your Shift key and press the ↓ key one
time to add cell A4 to the selection. Continue holding Shift and tapping ↓ to select cells
A5:A12. Then delete this range as well. The 1st Qtr Sales sheet should now be empty.
Yet another way to select a range is to click the first cell, then Shift+click the last cell. Try
it. Undo the last deletion you did, then click cell A3; hold down Shift and click cell A12.
You’ll see that this selects the whole range. Delete the range again.
14. Use the Save As command to save this file in your Chapter One folder, and name it Exer-
cise 1-17.xls. Leave the file open for the next exercise.
EXERCISE 1.18
Selecting Noncontiguous Ranges
1. In the March Sales sheet, select the range A3:A11. (Remember that you cut the data from
row 12 in Exercise 1.17, so that row should be empty.)
2. With A3:A11 selected, hold down your Ctrl key, click cell B3, and drag the white plus sign
over to cell E3 to add that to your selection. Note that B3 does not appear to be high-
lighted but B3 shows in the Name box, so that assures you that it is included in the selection.
EXERCISE 1.17 (continued)
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