There are various shortcuts to select multiple cells. The most common way is to click and drag to select a group of cells.
However, if you want to cut down on your frustration with Excel, you can also use the keyboard to select cells that are next to each other. If you click on the first cell in a data table, you can hold Shift and press the Down Arrow key to select the cell below it. You can continue to press the Down Arrow while holding Shift to select multiple cells below, or you can press the Right Arrow key to add the cells that are adjacent to the ones you’ve already selected.
There’s an even faster way to select an entire column or row using the keyboard. This method is especially useful for large data sets that go off the screen. In the last section, we saw how Ctrl-Down Arrow will move us to the last cell in a column. By adding Shift (Ctrl-Shift-Down Arrow), you can select an entire column in a data set. You can continue to hold Ctrl and Shift and press Right Arrow to select all the columns to the right. If you only press the arrow key once, the selection will be limited to that data set.
If you prefer to use fewer keyboard shortcuts, you can use a combination of the Shift key and the mouse to make large selections. Select the first cell. Navigate to the end of your data, hold down the Shift key, and click the last cell you want to include in your selection. You can use this to select multiple columns.
If you want to edit the selection, press the Shift key again, and click the cell that you want to be at the end of your selection. You can reduce the selected area, or expand it by clicking another cell further out on the sheet.
