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Tips.Net > ExcelTips Home > Editing > Cell Movement After Enter

Cell Movement After Enter

Summary: Most people don’t give a second thought as to which way Excel moves after you press Enter. Excel thinks about it a lot, however, and allows you to tell it which way to go. This tip describes how to pick the direction you want and how to configure Excel properly. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, and Excel 2003.)

When you enter information in a cell, and then press the Enter key, Excel normally moves to the cell below the one in which you entered the information. You can configure Excel to move in a different direction after pressing Enter by following these steps:

  1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Options menu.
  2. Make sure the Edit tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
  3. Make sure the Move Selection After Enter check box is selected.
  4. Use the Direction drop-down list to specify the direction that Excel should move.
  5. Click OK.

There is one interesting thing about how Excel selects a new cell: If you press Shift+Enter (instead of Enter) when entering data, then Excel selects the cell in the opposite direction of what you have specified in step 4. Thus, if the Direction drop-down list is set to Down, and you press Shift+Enter, then Excel actually moves the selection upwards.

Tip #2096 applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003


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