Excel

Book 2013
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Moving the Cell Cursor in Excel 2013 Spreadsheets

Excel 2013 offers a wide variety of keystrokes for moving the cell cursor to a new cell. When you use one of these keystrokes,
the program automatically scrolls a new part of the worksheet into view, if this is required to move the cell pointer.
The following table summarizes these keystrokes, including how far each one moves the cell pointer from its starting position.

Keystroke Where the Cell Cursor Moves Keystroke Where the Cell Cursor Moves
Right arrow Cell to the immediate right. Ctrl+Left First occupied cell to the left in the same
or Tab arrow or row that is either preceded or followed
Left arrow Cell to the immediate left. End, by a blank cell. If no cell is occupied, the
or Shift+Tab Left arrow pointer goes to the cell at the very begin-
ning of the row.
Up arrow Cell up one row.
Ctrl+Up First occupied cell above in the same
Down arrow Cell down one row. arrow or column that is either preceded or fol-
Home Cell in Column A of the current row. End, lowed by a blank cell. If no cell is occu-
Ctrl+Home First cell (A1) of the worksheet. Up arrow pied, the pointer goes to the cell at the
very top of the column.
Ctrl+End or Cell in the worksheet at the intersection
End, Home of the last column that has data in it and Ctrl+Down First occupied cell below in the same
the last row that has data in it (that is, the arrow or column that is either preceded or followed
last cell of the so-called active area of the End, Down by a blank cell. If no cell is occupied, the
worksheet). arrow pointer goes to the cell at the very bottom
of the column.
Page Up Cell one full screen up in the same column.
Ctrl+Page The cell pointer’s location in the next
Page Down Cell one full screen down in the same Down worksheet of that workbook.
column.
Ctrl+Page The cell pointer’s location in the previous
Ctrl+Right First occupied cell to the right in the same Up worksheet of that workbook.
arrow or row that is either preceded or followed by a
End, Right blank cell. If no cell is occupied, the pointer
arrow goes to the cell at the very end of the row.

When moving the cell cursor by using the keystrokes listed in the table, keep the following helpful hints
in mind:
✓ In the case of those keystrokes that use arrow keys, you must either use the arrows on the cursor keypad or else have
the Num Lock disengaged on the numeric keypad of your physical keyboard.
✓ The keystrokes that combine the Ctrl or End key with an arrow key are among the most helpful for moving quickly from
one edge to the other in large tables of cell entries or for moving from table to table in a section of a worksheet with
many blocks of cells.
✓ When you use Ctrl and an arrow key on a physical keyboard to move from edge to edge in a table or between tables
in a worksheet, you hold down Ctrl while you press one of the four arrow keys. When you do this with the Touch key-
board on a touchscreen device, you tap the Ctrl key and then the arrow key sequentially.
✓ When you use End and an arrow-key alternative, you must press and then release the End key before you press the
arrow key. Pressing and releasing the End key causes the End mode indicator to appear on the Status bar. This is your
sign that Excel is ready for you to press one of the four arrow keys.

Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, and related trademarks and trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. Excel is a registered trademark of Microsoft. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
For more information about John Wiley & Sons, Inc., call 877-762-2974.

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Book
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Excel2013_cs.2.indd 1 4/18/13 4:13 PM

 Excel
Book 2013
Title For
ForDummies
Dummies ®
®®
®

Excel 2013 Data-Entry Etiquette

To begin to work on a new Excel 2013 spreadsheet, you simply start entering information in the first sheet of the Book1
workbook window. Here are a few simple guidelines (a kind of data-entry etiquette) to keep in mind when you create an
Excel spreadsheet in Sheet1 of a new workbook:
✓ Whenever you can, organize your information in tables of data that use adjacent (neighboring) columns and rows. Start
the tables in the upper-left corner of the worksheet and work your way down the sheet, rather than across the sheet,
whenever possible. When it's practical, separate each table by no more than a single column or row.
✓ When you set up these tables, don't skip columns and rows just to "space out" the information. To place white space
between information in adjacent columns and rows, you can widen columns, heighten rows, and change the alignment.
✓ Reserve a single column at the left edge of the table for the table's row headings.
✓ Reserve a single row at the top of the table for the table's column headings.
✓ If your table requires a title, put the title in the row above the column headings. Put the title in the same column as the
row headings.

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 Excel 2013 For Dummies ®
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Deciphering Error Values in Excel 2013 Formulas

You can tell right away that an Excel 2013 formula has gone haywire because instead of a nice calculated value, you get
a strange, incomprehensible message. This weirdness is, in the parlance of Excel 2013 spreadsheets, an error value. Its
purpose is to let you know that some element — either in the formula itself or in a cell referred to by the formula — is
preventing Excel from returning the anticipated calculated value.
The following table lists some Excel 2013 error values and their most common causes.

What Shows Up in the Cell What’s Going On Here?

#DIV/0! Appears when the formula calls for division by a cell that either contains the
value 0 or, as is more often the case, is empty. Division by zero is a no-no in
mathematics.
#NAME? Appears when the formula refers to a range name that doesn’t exist in the work-
sheet. This error value appears when you type the wrong range name or fail to
enclose in quotation marks some text used in the formula, causing Excel to think that
the text refers to a range name.
#NULL! Appears most often when you insert a space (where you should have used a
comma) to separate cell references used as arguments for functions.
#NUM! Appears when Excel encounters a problem with a number in the formula, such as
the wrong type of argument in an Excel function or a calculation that produces a
number too large or too small to be represented in the worksheet.
#REF! Appears when Excel encounters an invalid cell reference, such as when you
delete a cell referred to in a formula or paste cells over the cells referred to in a
formula.
#VALUE! Appears when you use the wrong type of argument or operator in a function, or
when you call for a mathematical operation that refers to cells that contain text
entries.

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