Selecting cells

Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 2.x

Chapter 7: Getting Started with Calc

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• Parts of the main Calc window
• File management
• Navigating within spreadsheets

• Going to a particular cell
• Moving from cell to cell
• Moving from sheet to sheet

• Selecting cells
• Selecting columns and rows
• Inserting columns and rows
• Deleting columns and rows
• Working with sheets

• Inserting new sheets
• Deleting sheets
• Renaming sheets

• Viewing Calc

• Freezing rows and columns
• Splitting the window

• Entering data into a sheet
• Printing

• Print options
• Selecting sheets to print
• Printing rows or columns on every page
• Defining a print range

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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 5. 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 any of these methods will look like the right side of Figure 5.

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 non-contiguous 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 Control key and click or click-and-drag to select a range.
4. Repeat as necessary.