Sometimes while working on a large worksheet, we need to move cells in Excel to work faster and for ease of working. We can move cells in Excel using the arrow keys from our keyboard. In this article, I will tell you about 6 easy ways how to move cells in Excel with the arrow keys from your keyboard without any need to use your mouse.
How to Move Cells in Excel with Arrow Keys: 6 Suitable Methods
Let’s assume a scenario where we have an Excel worksheet of different universities in the United States. We have 10 different universities in this worksheet and various information. The information includes which state one specific university is in, the faculty and student number, and the world ranking of that university. Now, we will try to move our cells using 4 arrow keys on our keyboard along with CTRL, SCROLL DOWN, PAGE UP, and PAGE DOWN keys. We will learn 6 different ways to move our cells conveniently. Every method, however, is suited for a particular type of work. We will try to learn the techniques and use them according to our needs.
1. Move to Next Cell in Excel with Arrow Key
You can move to the next adjacent cell by just pressing one of the four arrow keys. You can do so by following these steps-
Step 1:
- If you want to move to the next right cell, you have to just press the RIGHT ARROW (→)
- In case of toggling to the cell left of the currently selected cell, you have to press the LEFT ARROW (←).
Step 2:
- If you want to move to the cell just below the current cell, you have to just press the DOWN ARROW (→).
- In case of moving up to the cell just above the selected one, press the UP ARROW (↑).
Read More: How to Make Excel Move Automatically to the Next Cell
2. Move to the End of Column or Row Range with Arrow and CTRL Key
If you need to move to the last column or last row of the data you are working on, all you have to do is to hold down the CTRL and RIGHT ARROW key together to scroll to the start and end of each range in a column or row before reaching the end of the worksheet.
Step 1:
- In the worksheet we are working on, the first column is University (Column B) and the last column in this range is Ranking (Column F). So, if we want to move to the Ranking column from the first column University, we have to first select one of the cells of the University
- Then we will press the CTRL and RIGHT ARROW (→) key together to move to the last column (Ranking) in this data range.
- If we want to move back to our first column, we have to press the CTRL and LEFT ARROW (←) key together instead of the RIGHT ARROW.
Step 2:
- So, if we want to toggle down to our last row from the first row in the data range, we have to first select one of the cells in the first row. In our case, the first row is the header row that includes the name of all the columns (University, State, Faculty No, Student No, Ranking). So we will select a cell from this row or we can also select the entire row.
- After that, we have to hold down the CTRL and DOWN ARROW (↓) keys together to reach the last row in this data range.
Read More: How to Move Cells without Replacing in Excel
3. Move One Row or One Column with Arrow Key and Scroll LOCK
If you need to just move one row up or down, then you have to follow these steps-
Step 1:
- Press Scroll Lock. See the Things to Remember section down below to find out how to activate the Scroll Lock key on your keyboard.
- Upon pressing the Scroll Lock key, you will see a Scroll Lock bar appear on the bottom of your Excel worksheet.
Step 2:
- After that, press the UP or DOWN ARROW key to scroll one row up or down or the LEFT or RIGHT ARROW key to move one column left or right.
Read More: How to Move Cells with Keyboard in Excel
4. Move One Window Using SCROLL LOCK, CTRL, and ARROW Key
If you need to move one window up or down or want to slide one window left or right, do these steps-
Step 1:
- Press the SCROLL LOCK key from your keyboard or your On-Screen Keyboard if you do not have that key on your keyboard.
Step 2:
- Hold down the CTRL key while you press the LEFT or RIGHT ARROW key to scroll one window left or right. If you want to move one window up or down you can press the UP or DOWN ARROW Using this technique, you can also move through a large distance in your worksheet.
5. Move between Sheets in Excel With Arrow Keys
Working with a large Excel file with a lot of worksheets will be a lot easier if you can conveniently toggle between them. You can move from one worksheet to another in your Excel file following these easy steps.
Step 1:
- To move to the sheet right of the current one, hold down CTRL, then press the PgDn key.
- To keep moving to the right, press the PgDn key again.
Step 2:
- If you want to move to the left sheet next to the one you are now, press the PgUp key while holding down the CTRL key.
- To keep moving to the left, press the PgUp key again.
6. Move Cells Using Arrow Signs
You can move a single column or row of cells using the arrow sign that will appear when you select a cell, row, or column. Use that arrow sign to move your desired cells to another location. You have to follow these steps-
Step 1:
- First, select the cells you want to move.
- Place your cursor over the edge of the selected cells. You will see a four-sided arrow appear. We are trying to move the Ranking column (column F) over to column G. So we will select the Ranking column following the above-mentioned steps.
Step 2:
- Then just click and drag the cell to the location you want it to be. You will notice a green outline of the cell and the new cell reference (location) display when you drag it. Simply release when the cell lands in its new spot.
- As we try to drag the Ranking column (column F) to column G, we will see a green outline of the cell in column G. We will also see the new reference display G4:G14.
- When we release the cursor, we will see the Ranking column is moved to column G.
Read More: How to Move a Group of Cells in Excel
Things to Remember
- Some keyboards do not include SCROLL LOCK. If your keyboard does not have a Scroll Lock key, on your computer, click Start > Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard. Click the On-Screen Keyboard button to turn it on. When the on-screen keyboard appears on your screen, click the ScrLk button.
- You can turn off SCROLL KEY LOCK using the same On-Screen Keyboard. To turn off SCROLL LOCK, click the ScrLk, and then close the On-Screen Keyboard.
- When SCROLL LOCK is on, Scroll Lock is displayed on the status bar in Excel.
- To use the ARROW KEYs to shift between cells, you must turn SCROLL KEY.
- To use the ARROW KEYs to toggle between cells, you must turn SCROLL KEY To do that, press the Scroll Lock key. This key is labeled as ScLk on the keyboard.
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Conclusion
In this article, we have learned 6 easy ways to move cells with arrow keys in Excel. We have learned how to use the CTRL, SCROLL LOCK, and the ARROW KEYS together to move to the next cell, to the end of the row or column in a data range, move one row or column, move from one sheet to another in Excel with arrow keys and move cells using arrow signs. I hope now you have a clear idea of how to move cells.
