Excel select all button

Select cell contents in Excel

In Excel, you can select cell contents of one or more cells, rows and columns.

Note: If a worksheet has been protected, you might not be able to select cells or their contents on a worksheet.

Select one or more cells

Click on a cell to select it. Or use the keyboard to navigate to it and select it.

To select a range, select a cell, then with the left mouse button pressed, drag over the other cells.

Or use the Shift + arrow keys to select the range.

To select non-adjacent cells and cell ranges, hold Ctrl and select the cells.

Select one or more rows and columns

Select the letter at the top to select the entire column. Or click on any cell in the column and then press Ctrl + Space.

Select the row number to select the entire row. Or click on any cell in the row and then press Shift + Space.

To select non-adjacent rows or columns, hold Ctrl and select the row or column numbers.

Select table, list or worksheet

To select a list or table, select a cell in the list or table and press Ctrl + A.

To select the entire worksheet, click the Select All button at the top left corner.

Note: In some cases, selecting a cell may result in the selection of multiple adjacent cells as well. For tips on how to resolve this issue, see this post How do I stop Excel from highlighting two cells at once? in the community.

Click the cell, or press the arrow keys to move to the cell.

A range of cells

Click the first cell in the range, and then drag to the last cell, or hold down SHIFT while you press the arrow keys to extend the selection.

You can also select the first cell in the range, and then press F8 to extend the selection by using the arrow keys. To stop extending the selection, press F8 again.

A large range of cells

Click the first cell in the range, and then hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell in the range. You can scroll to make the last cell visible.

All cells on a worksheet

Click the Select All button.

To select the entire worksheet, you can also press CTRL+A.

Note: If the worksheet contains data, CTRL+A selects the current region. Pressing CTRL+A a second time selects the entire worksheet.

Nonadjacent cells or cell ranges

Select the first cell or range of cells, and then hold down CTRL while you select the other cells or ranges.

You can also select the first cell or range of cells, and then press SHIFT+F8 to add another nonadjacent cell or range to the selection. To stop adding cells or ranges to the selection, press SHIFT+F8 again.

Note: You cannot cancel the selection of a cell or range of cells in a nonadjacent selection without canceling the entire selection.

An entire row or column

Click the row or column heading.

2. Column heading

You can also select cells in a row or column by selecting the first cell and then pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key (RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW for rows, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW for columns).

Note: If the row or column contains data, CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key selects the row or column to the last used cell. Pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key a second time selects the entire row or column.

Adjacent rows or columns

Drag across the row or column headings. Or select the first row or column; then hold down SHIFT while you select the last row or column.

Nonadjacent rows or columns

Click the column or row heading of the first row or column in your selection; then hold down CTRL while you click the column or row headings of other rows or columns that you want to add to the selection.

The first or last cell in a row or column

Select a cell in the row or column, and then press CTRL+ARROW key (RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW for rows, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW for columns).

The first or last cell on a worksheet or in a Microsoft Office Excel table

Press CTRL+HOME to select the first cell on the worksheet or in an Excel list.

Press CTRL+END to select the last cell on the worksheet or in an Excel list that contains data or formatting.

Cells to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower-right corner)

Select the first cell, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+END to extend the selection of cells to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower-right corner).

Cells to the beginning of the worksheet

Select the first cell, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+HOME to extend the selection of cells to the beginning of the worksheet.

More or fewer cells than the active selection

Hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell that you want to include in the new selection. The rectangular range between the active cell and the cell that you click becomes the new selection.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

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Select worksheets

By clicking the sheet tabs at the bottom of the Excel window, you can quickly select one or more sheets. To enter or edit data on several worksheets at the same time, you can group worksheets by selecting multiple sheets. You can also format or print a selection of sheets at the same time.

Click the tab for the sheet you want to edit. The active sheet will be a different color than other sheets. In this case, Sheet4 has been selected.

If you don’t see the tab that you want, click the scrolling buttons to locate the tab. You can add a sheet by pressing the Add Sheet button to the right of the sheet tabs.

Two or more adjacent sheets

Click the tab for the first sheet, then hold down SHIFT while you click the tab for the last sheet that you want to select.

By keyboard: First, press F6 to activate the sheet tabs. Next, use the left or right arrow keys to select the sheet you want, then you can use Ctrl+Space to select that sheet. Repeat the arrow and Ctrl+Space steps to select additional sheets.

Two or more nonadjacent sheets

Click the tab for the first sheet, then hold down CTRL while you click the tabs of the other sheets that you want to select.

By keyboard: First, press F6 to activate the sheet tabs. Next, use the left or right arrow keys to select the sheet you want, then you can use Ctrl+Space to select that sheet. Repeat the arrow and Ctrl+Space steps to select additional sheets.

All sheets in a workbook

Right-click a sheet tab, and then click the Select All Sheets option.

TIP: After choosing multiple sheets, [Group] appears in the title bar at the top of the worksheet. To cancel a selection of multiple worksheets in a workbook, click any unselected worksheet. If no unselected sheet is visible, right-click the tab of a selected sheet, and then click Ungroup Sheets on the shortcut menu.

Data that you enter or edit in the active worksheet will appear in all selected sheets. These changes might replace data on the active sheet and—perhaps unintentionally—on other selected sheets.

Data that you copy or cut in grouped sheets cannot be pasted onto another sheet, because the size of the copy area includes all layers of the selected sheets (which is different from the paste area in a single sheet). It’s important to ensure that only one sheet is selected before you copy or move data to another worksheet.

When you save a workbook that contains grouped sheets and then close the workbook, the sheets that you selected remain grouped when you reopen that workbook.

In Excel for the web you can’t select more than one sheet at a time, but it’s easy to find the sheet you want.

Select the All Sheets menu, then choose a sheet from the menu to open it.

From the sheets listed along the bottom, select a sheet name to open it. Use the arrows just beside the All Sheets menu to scroll forward and backward through sheets to review ones that aren’t currently visible.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

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7 Keyboard Shortcuts for Selecting Cells and Ranges in Excel

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

Skill Level: Beginner

Video Tutorial

Download the Excel File

If you’d like to follow along with the video using the same worksheet I’m using, you can download it here:

Keyboard Shortcuts to Select Cells

Who doesn’t love a keyboard shortcut to help make things faster and easier? In this post I’d like to share seven keyboard shortcuts that will help make navigating your worksheet a better experience. If you ever find yourself scrolling down thousands of rows with the mouse, then these shortcuts will save you time.

1. Select the Last Used Cell

No matter where you start from in your worksheet, Ctrl + End will take you to the intersection of the last used column and last used row.

Sometimes, when you use this shortcut, Excel will move your selection so that is farther to the right or farther down than the data range you can see.

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

Ctrl + End will select the last used cell on the sheet. However, there could be shapes (charts, slicers, etc.) on the sheet below or to the right of that cell. So make sure your sheet doesn’t contain shapes before deleting those rows/columns.

2. Select the First Visible Cell

Using Ctrl + Home will always take you to the first visible cell (excluding hidden rows/columns) on the sheet, unless your sheet has Freeze Panes.

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

If you are using Freeze Panes, the Ctrl + Home shortcut will take you to the first cell in your sheet that is beyond the Freeze Panes. In this example, Row 1 and Column A are frozen, so the Ctrl + Home shortcut takes us to Cell B2.

3. Select Last Cell in Contiguous Range

Ctrl + Arrow Key

Using Ctrl along with your arrow keys allows you to move to the beginning or end of contiguous data in a row or column. For example, if you start at the top of a column and then press Ctrl + ? you will jump to the last cell in that column before an empty cell. Repeating this process will move you further down the column to just before the next blank cell.

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

An Alternative Using the Mouse

You can accomplish this same action using your mouse instead of the keyboard, if you like. Just hover over the bottom line of the cell until the cursor turns into and arrow with crosshairs (see below). Then double-click. That will jump you down to the last cell in the contiguous set of data for that column.

4. Add Cells to the Selected Range

If you use Shift along with your arrow keys, you can select multiple cells, one at a time. For example, if you start in any cell and press Shift + ? , it highlights the original cell and the cell just below it.

The same idea applies to the left, right, or up arrows. And if you keep the Shift key held down, you can continue to move over multiple cells in multiple directions to select an entire range of data.

5. Select Multiple Cells in Contiguous Range

Ctrl + Shift + Arrow Key

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

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

This process only selects cells that come before a blank cell. However, sometimes a column can have 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 post for some alternatives:

6. Select All Cells to First or Last Cell

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

So if, for example, we start in Cell C5 and Press Ctrl + Shift + Home , the following range will be selected.

Ctrl + Shift + Home

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

Ctrl + Shift + End

7. Select All Cells

Press Ctrl + A a second 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 block of data that is surrounding your cell when you press Ctrl + A . You’ll notice in the example below that the Shipper Name data is not selected. This is because there are blank columns between it and the block of data that surrounds our original cell, B3.

If your intention is to select all of the cells on the sheet, you simply press Ctrl + A a second time and your entire worksheet will be highlighted.

Better, Faster, Smarter

I hope you are able to commit some of these shortcuts to memory. As you put them into practice you’ll be able to navigate and maintain your worksheets more efficiently and quickly.

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

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