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Microsoft Excel: How-To Use It


Microsoft Excel is one of the most commonly used applications by the businesses worldwide. Learning Microsoft Excel can be an investment that benefits many people both personally and professionally.  Learning how to use Excel can help you in your life or career. All Excel users should be able to activate cells and input data into an Excel Worksheet. The activation and data input are the most essential skills for Microsoft Excel. It is good to know the difference between the activated mode as well as the edit mode of a cell in the spreadsheets. There are several ways in which you can select a range of cell or enter edit mode for a cell in Excel.


When someone clicks on a cell in the excel worksheet, the cell is activated. If you start to type, while a cell is enabled, the text you have typed replaces the contents of the activated cell. Pressing the left, right, up or down arrow keys on the computer keyboard, moves the activation to an adjacent cell either to the left, right, below or above the previously selected cell.  This is different when the cell is on the edited mode. The cursor appears in the cell and anything typed is added to the cell, alongside the existing cell contents. When you press the right, left, up and down arrow keys on the keyboard, the cursor moves within the cell.


A range of cells can be activated using different ways as explained below. The first method is done by single-clicking one cell.  You are required to use the left, right, up and down arrow keys on the keyboard, to navigate from a current selection to the cell you want to activate. You should then type a reference to the cell in the Name Box on the top left of the worksheet and then press the return or the enter key. The currently activated cell is highlighted in Excel by a thick black border hence can be noted. It is good to understand that when you have a range of cells selected one to the cells with the array is activated. Any text entered overwrites the content in the activated cell. On pressing the arrow keys, different cells will be activated within the selected range. To get more tips on how to use Microsoft Excel, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Excel#Features.


To select a range of cells, you can use the mouse to click on the start of the range and drag across to the range you desire to pick. You can use the reference box to the top of the worksheet and press the enter key. The shift key can be used after activating the start cell. With the shift key selected, you can use the arrow keys to increase or decrease the selected cells one at a time. You can also use both the shift and control keys to increase or decrease the range of the selected cells. You can put a cell in the edit mode by double-clicking on it. Check this website at http://excelerator.solutions/2017/09/18/create-excel-vsto-add-in/ to know more!