Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 29, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
David noted that Quattro Pro used to have a feature where you could depress the period key when you had a range highlighted and it would take you the four corners of the range in clockwise order as a way to check that you had the entire range you wanted. He wonders if Excel has something similar.
You are in luck, David; there is a shortcut built into Excel that will do this very thing. Interestingly enough, it is very close to the same shortcut key used in Quattro Pro. All you need to do, after you have the range selected, is hold down the Ctrl key as you press the period. Excel moves you through the outside corners of the range, in order.
Further, you can move from the upper-left corner of the selection to the lower-right corner by pressing Shift+Tab. To move back (from bottom-right to upper-left), just press the Tab key.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3290) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Going to the Corners of a Selected Range.
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2016-02-20 09:09:16
Ryan
When I use CTRL + SHIFT + END to select an entire range, it sometimes selects blank rows at the bottom of the range where I have deleted rows. How do I get it to only select rows where I have data?
2016-02-20 06:04:35
Pieter de la Court
This is very handy, however it does not seem to work when you want to move around the corners while entering a data range in a formula. Is there any way to do that?
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.
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