Finding the End of the Worksheet

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 18, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


2

When you press Ctrl+End, Excel takes you to the bottom cell of your worksheet. This is defined as the intersection of the right-most column and the bottom row. If you delete some rows or columns in the worksheet, you would expect that Ctrl+End would still take you to the bottom cell. It does not, however. What it does is take you to the original bottom cell.

For instance, if you load a worksheet for which the bottom cell is H20, and then delete three rows and one column, you would expect Ctrl+End to take you to G17. Instead, it still takes you to H20.

The only way around this is to save the file. You don't have to close it, simply save the file. Doing so causes Excel to recalculate the bottom cell.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (1923) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Adding Up Tops and Bottoms

When you are working with sequenced values in a list, you'll often want to take some action based on the top X or bottom ...

Discover More

Adding a Break to Your Document

Want to modify the way your text flows between pages in a document? Word allows you to insert several types of breaks ...

Discover More

Adding Page Borders to a Printout

Need a full-page border on your Excel printouts? It's not as easy to get one as you might wish. There are a few ways you ...

Discover More

Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2013 For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Limiting Scroll Area

If you need to limit the cells that are accessible by the user of a worksheet, VBA can come to the rescue. This doesn't ...

Discover More

Jumping to the Real Last Cell

Jumping to the last cell in a worksheet should be easy, but you may not always get the results that you expect. This tip ...

Discover More

Jumping To a Specific Page

Want to jump to a specific printed page within a worksheet? It's not as easy as you might think, but here's some ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 9 - 8?

2016-06-12 06:28:47

Willy Vanhaelen

You can also add this macro to your personal book:

Sub GoToLastCell()
If TypeName(Selection) <> "Range" Then Exit Sub
ActiveSheet.UsedRange.SpecialCells(xlLastCell).Select
End Sub

You can it assign the shortcut key Alt+Ctrl+End in "ThisWorkbook" of you personal book:

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Application.OnKey "^%{end}", "GoToLastCell" 'Alt+Ctrl+End
End Sub

From now on when you press Alt+Ctrl+End you always get the real last cell no matter whether you deleted some column/rows or not even if your file hasn't been saved.


2016-06-11 05:09:47

Rick Rothstein

Another way around the problem (in case you don't want to physically save the file at that particular time) is to go into the VB editor (press Alt+F11 from any worksheet) and execute a command in the Immediate Window (press Ctrl+G if not visible) that involves the UsedRange. For example, executing this in the Immediate window clears the problem...

? ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Address


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.