Selecting Cells

Getting Started with OpenOffice 4

Chapter 4: Getting Started with Calc

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• What is Calc
• Parts of the main Calc window
• Open and Save CSV files
• Navigating within spreadsheets
  • Going to a particular cell
  • Moving from cell to cell
  • Moving from sheet to sheet
• Selecting items in a sheet or a spreadsheet
  • Selecting Cells
  • Selecting Columns and Rows
  • Selecting Sheets
• Working with Columns and Rows
• Working with Sheets
• Viewing Calc
• Entering data using the keyboard
• Speeding up data entry
• Validating cell contents
• Editing data
• Formatting data
• Auto-formatting cells and sheets
• Formatting spreadsheets using themes
• Using conditional formatting
• Hiding and showing data
• Sorting records
• Using formulas and functions
• Analyzing data
• Printing from Calc
  • Using Print Ranges
  • Selecting the Page Order, Details, and Scale
  • Page Breaks
  • Headers and Footers

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Selecting Cells

Cells can be selected in a variety of combinations and quantities.

Single cell

Left-click in the cell. The result will look like the left side of Figure 71. You can verify your selection by looking in the Name box.

Range of contiguous cells

A range of cells can be selected using the keyboard or the mouse.

To select a range of cells by dragging the mouse:

1. Click in a cell.
2. Press and hold down the left mouse button.
3. Move the mouse around the screen.
4. Once the desired block of cells is highlighted, release the left mouse button.

To select a range of cells without dragging the mouse:

1. Click in the cell which is to be one corner of the range of cells.
2. Move the mouse to the opposite corner of the range of cells.
3. Hold down the  ⇧ Shift  key and click.

To select a range of cells without using the mouse:

1. Select the cell that will be one of the corners in the range of cells.
2. While holding down the  ⇧ Shift  key, use the cursor arrows to select the rest of the range.

The result of these methods looks like the right side of Figure 71.

To select all the occupied cells in one direction:

1. Click the first cell in the desired range.
2. Hold the  Ctrl  +  ⇧ Shift  keys and press the arrow to move in the desired direction. The cursor will jump to the last occupied cell.

You can also directly select a range of cells using the Name box. Click into the Name Box as described in “Using a cell reference”. To select a range of cells, enter the cell reference for the upper left-hand cell, followed by a colon (:), and then the lower right-hand cell reference. For example, to select the range that would go from A3 to C6, you would enter A3:C6.

Range of noncontiguous cells

1. Select the cell or range of cells using one of the methods above.
2. Move the mouse pointer to the start of the next range or single cell.
3. Hold down the  Ctrl  key and click or click-and-drag to select a range.
4. Repeat as necessary.