In this article, we will look at Excel selection techniques which involve using the mouse in conjunction with the keyboard. One of the easiest and most useful is click followed by Shift-click. This is particularly handy for highlighting large ranges of data since it allows you to simply click on two opposite corners of the rectangular range of cells which you want to select. To perform this technique, first click in the top left cell of the range you want to select. Next, make sure that the bottom right cell of the proposed range is visible. Finally, holding down the Shift key, click in the bottom right cell. All the cells between the two clicks will then be highlighted.

The other main modifier key which can be used in conjunction with the mouse to make selections is Control. Whereas the mouse and Shift key combination only permits us to make rectangular selections, if we use the mouse in conjunction with the Control key, we can make non-contiguous selections; in other words, we can highlight cells which are not adjacent to each other. Once you have highlighted a region, the next operation you perform will only apply to the highlighted cells. For example, you might want to copy the cells and paste them into a new worksheet.

A less well-known technique is to double-click one of the edges of the bold rectangle which surrounds the currently selected area while holding down the Shift key. You will notice that Excel always displays a bold border around the highlighted cells. By holding down the Shift key and double-clicking on the right-hand border, we can select all the cells up to the right-hand edge of the current range. The first column that contains blank cells acts as a boundary and Excel selects up to that boundary. Naturally, you can also extend the selection by holding down the Shift key and double-clicking on any of the other borders as well.

It is also possible to make selections using just the keyboard and no mouse. Only contiguous ranges of cells can be selected in this way. All you need to do is hold down the Shift key while pressing one of the cursor keys. For example, if you press the right cursor key, you will select to the right; pressing the down cursor key will select adjacent rows; and so on. You can also move back in the opposite direction to remove cells from the selection.

To select all the cells up to the edge of a range of data, hold down the Control and Shift keys while pressing one of the cursor keys. For example, the right cursor key will select all the cells up to the right edge of the current range; the down arrow will select all the cells to the bottom; and so forth.

As well as pressing the cursor keys, you can use the End key. Hold down Control and Shift and press the End key to select all the cells to the bottom right of the current range.