Deselect (Unselect) Cells

[Gord Dibben]

Would be a great trick if it actually worked in any version of Excel.

Unfortunately, it does not.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Bud Barthlome]

I don't want to be facetious but you throw that MVP thing around like it really means something.

I don't want to burst your bubble, BUT, the deselect function was one time part of MICROSOFT EXCEL. And yes it was a popular function, and they should put it back.

I have used Excel for a very long time and was used to the way cell selection
was managed. For example, If I used CTRL to select 5 different cells and
then wanted to deselect one of them, I could just reclick it while holing
CTRL. However, now in Excel 2007 if I select a cell by mistake and want to
deselect it rather than restart my whole selection process, I cannot. Can
someone please tell me how to deselect a cell if it is selected. If this is
an impossible task then I, for one, am speachless.

Mike

On Friday, August 10, 2007 6:16 PM James_Thomlinso wrote:
Not too sure what you are talking about. To the best of my knowledge you
never could un-select a cell by re-clicking it...
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"gtabmx" wrote:

On Friday, August 10, 2007 6:20 PM Elka wrote:
I don't remember this ever being possible in Excel. What version were you
using before 2007? Here's a quote that can be found in both Excel 2003 and
2007 Help Files, relating to selecting non-adjacent cells:

"[Note] You cannot cancel the selection of a cell or range of cells in a
nonadjacent selection without canceling the entire selection."

HTH,
Elkar


"gtabmx" wrote:

 

[Randall Bell]

For what it's worth. I found this thread because I'm trying to do several fairly complex multiple selections, and, am being driven mad because I keep making a mistake half way through (90% through on one occasion). What unbelievably stupid functionality.

Anyway, again, for what its worth: Open Office works the sensible way but won't let me perform the copy and save on the multiple selection. However: if you open the file in OO; make the selection; save it, and, re-open it in excel: the selection is still highlighted and you can copy and paste (as long as the selection is essentially oblong e.g. A1-A6, C1-C6, E1-E6 etc.).

Of course you lose any formatting of graphs and things so you need to know you're going to need to do all this before you get too far down the road.

Well there you go, word is terrible when compared to OO, but, Excel is still the best spread sheet... just.

I have used Excel for a very long time and was used to the way cell selection
was managed. For example, If I used CTRL to select 5 different cells and
then wanted to deselect one of them, I could just reclick it while holing
CTRL. However, now in Excel 2007 if I select a cell by mistake and want to
deselect it rather than restart my whole selection process, I cannot. Can
someone please tell me how to deselect a cell if it is selected. If this is
an impossible task then I, for one, am speachless.

Mike

On Friday, August 10, 2007 6:16 PM James_Thomlinso wrote:
Not too sure what you are talking about. To the best of my knowledge you
never could un-select a cell by re-clicking it...
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"gtabmx" wrote:

On Friday, August 10, 2007 6:20 PM Elka wrote:
I don't remember this ever being possible in Excel. What version were you
using before 2007? Here's a quote that can be found in both Excel 2003 and
2007 Help Files, relating to selecting non-adjacent cells:

"[Note] You cannot cancel the selection of a cell or range of cells in a
nonadjacent selection without canceling the entire selection."

HTH,
Elkar


"gtabmx" wrote:

 

[Gord Dibben]

Sounds like you need this functionality often.

Assign the two macros to buttons on a Toolbar and use them when you need to
correct a selection.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

For what it's worth. I found this thread because I'm trying to do several fairly complex multiple selections, and, am being driven mad because I keep making a mistake half way through (90% through on one occasion). What unbelievably stupid functionality.

Anyway, again, for what its worth: Open Office works the sensible way but won't let me perform the copy and save on the multiple selection. However: if you open the file in OO; make the selection; save it, and, re-open it in excel: the selection is still highlighted and you can copy and paste (as long as the selection is essentially oblong e.g. A1-A6, C1-C6, E1-E6 etc.).

Of course you lose any formatting of graphs and things so you need to know you're going to need to do all this before you get too far down the road.

Well there you go, word is terrible when compared to OO, but, Excel is still the best spread sheet... just.

I have used Excel for a very long time and was used to the way cell selection
was managed. For example, If I used CTRL to select 5 different cells and
then wanted to deselect one of them, I could just reclick it while holing
CTRL. However, now in Excel 2007 if I select a cell by mistake and want to
deselect it rather than restart my whole selection process, I cannot. Can
someone please tell me how to deselect a cell if it is selected. If this is
an impossible task then I, for one, am speachless.

Mike

On Friday, August 10, 2007 6:16 PM James_Thomlinso wrote:
Not too sure what you are talking about. To the best of my knowledge you
never could un-select a cell by re-clicking it...
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"gtabmx" wrote:

On Friday, August 10, 2007 6:20 PM Elka wrote:
I don't remember this ever being possible in Excel. What version were you
using before 2007? Here's a quote that can be found in both Excel 2003 and
2007 Help Files, relating to selecting non-adjacent cells:

"[Note] You cannot cancel the selection of a cell or range of cells in a
nonadjacent selection without canceling the entire selection."

HTH,
Elkar


"gtabmx" wrote:

On Friday, August 10, 2007 6:26 PM gtabm wrote:
I have always used 2000 until I upgraded to 2007. Why can I not deselect
non-adjacent cells? Was it to difficult for the fellows at Microsoft to
program or was it not a popular function?

"Elkar" wrote:

On Friday, August 10, 2007 6:38 PM Elka wrote:
I agree, that would be a handy feature. Not sure why it was removed.

If you're not aware of it, you can hit SHIFT-F8 to toggle "Add to Selection"
on/off. This allows you to select multiple cells without holding down any
keys. That doesn't solve the problem, but could help to avoid accidentally
clicking on a wrong cell and having to start over.

HTH,
Elkar

"gtabmx" wrote:

On Friday, August 10, 2007 7:46 PM Gord Dibben wrote:
I know of no version of Excel that allows you to de-select a cell by re-clicking
in the manner you describe.

Once selected with CTRL + Click, the cells are selected.

Chip Pearson has code to allow de-selecting cells or ranges.

Sub UnSelectActiveCell()
Dim Rng As Range
Dim FullRange As Range
'Chip Pearson
If Selection.Cells.Count > 1 Then
For Each Rng In Selection.Cells
If Rng.Address <> ActiveCell.Address Then
If FullRange Is Nothing Then
Set FullRange = Rng
Else
Set FullRange = Application.Union(FullRange, Rng)
End If
End If
Next Rng

If FullRange.Cells.Count > 0 Then
FullRange.Select
End If
End If

End Sub


Sub UnSelectActiveArea()
'Chip Pearson
Dim Rng As Range
Dim FullRange As Range
Dim Ndx As Integer
If Selection.Areas.Count > 1 Then
For Each Rng In Selection.Areas
If Application.Intersect(ActiveCell, Rng) Is Nothing Then
If FullRange Is Nothing Then
Set FullRange = Rng
Else
Set FullRange = Application.Union(FullRange, Rng)
End If
End If
Next Rng
FullRange.Select
End If

End Sub


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Friday, August 10, 2007 11:59 PM MartinW wrote:
I use 2000 and I have never been able to do that, although many
is the time that I have wished I could.

Reclicking on a cell just changes it to be the active cell. It turns
to white but is still part of the selection set.

Regards
Martin


news:[email protected]...

On Saturday, August 11, 2007 9:16 AM Jon Peltier wrote:
It was not removed, since it was never part of Excel.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______

On Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:22 PM RagDyeR wrote:
Like some of folks here, I could have sworn that I used to be able to select
and de-select in some earlier version of XL ... that is until just this
morning.

I was working in Windows explorer, *AND * THERE* is where it can be done! !
!

Just got those 2 mixed up in my memory.<bg>
--

HTH,

RD
=====================================================
Please keep all correspondence within the Group, so all may benefit!
=====================================================


"Gord Dibben" <gorddibbATshawDOTca> wrote in message
I know of no version of Excel that allows you to de-select a cell by
re-clicking
in the manner you describe.

Once selected with CTRL + Click, the cells are selected.

Chip Pearson has code to allow de-selecting cells or ranges.

Sub UnSelectActiveCell()
Dim Rng As Range
Dim FullRange As Range
'Chip Pearson
If Selection.Cells.Count > 1 Then
For Each Rng In Selection.Cells
If Rng.Address <> ActiveCell.Address Then
If FullRange Is Nothing Then
Set FullRange = Rng
Else
Set FullRange = Application.Union(FullRange, Rng)
End If
End If
Next Rng

If FullRange.Cells.Count > 0 Then
FullRange.Select
End If
End If

End Sub


Sub UnSelectActiveArea()
'Chip Pearson
Dim Rng As Range
Dim FullRange As Range
Dim Ndx As Integer
If Selection.Areas.Count > 1 Then
For Each Rng In Selection.Areas
If Application.Intersect(ActiveCell, Rng) Is Nothing Then
If FullRange Is Nothing Then
Set FullRange = Rng
Else
Set FullRange = Application.Union(FullRange, Rng)
End If
End If
Next Rng
FullRange.Select
End If

End Sub


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:56:01 -0700, gtabmx
<[email protected]>
wrote:

On Saturday, August 11, 2007 2:37 PM Peo Sjoblom wrote:
Look like gtabmx got spastic over nothing


--

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

After making the selection holding down control, if you click on one of the
cells that was already selected, that cell turns white again ( not light up
or not blue...) and make us think that was de-selected but it's not. However
this feature should be consider for later excel versions (2010?), I'm sure
we'll use it very often.

"Peo Sjoblom" wrote:

On Monday, November 17, 2008 10:03 AM Ashley Mattes wrote:
I don't know what everyone else is talking about, but you could DEFINITELY deselect cells within a selected entire row/column before in 2003 by holding down CTRL and clicking the cell. I just converted over to 2007 and noticed this is no longer an option. WTF Microsoft! Why would you take this lovely function away! Mike, or anyone else, have you found out how to do this yet???

On Monday, November 17, 2008 10:16 AM shg wrote:
Ctrl+click in a selection in Excel 2003 doesn't remove the cell from the
selection; it changes the active cell.

On Monday, November 17, 2008 12:24 PM Chip Pearson wrote:
I don't believe that any version of Excel, 2007, 2003 or anything
else, ever allowed you to unselect a cell, removing it from the
current selection. Holding down the CTRL key changes which cell within
the selected cells is the Active Cell, but it does not and never did
allow you to remove the cell from the Selection. I have code on my
web site at http://www.cpearson.com/excel/unselect.aspx that allows
you to unselect the active cell or the active area, removing it from
the current Selection.

Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP
Excel Product Group
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email on web site)

On Monday, November 17, 2008 1:42 PM Bob I wrote:
I think you may be confusing the behavior in Windows Explorer with Excel.

Ashley wrote:

So keep your lousy explication (like "I think you may be confusing the behavior in Windows Explorer with Excel") for yourself, thank you.

On Saturday, January 09, 2010 2:48 PM Christopher Robinson wrote:
Double click. Works in every version of Excel up to 2003. I haven't tried it in 2007, but can later today. (I don't like office 2007 for various reasons, so wouldn't be surprised if they removed the easy deselect function).



cheers,

chris

On Thursday, October 21, 2010 7:49 PM Bud Barthlome wrote:
I don't want to be facetious but you throw that MVP thing around like it really means something.



I don't want to burst your bubble, BUT, the deselect function was one time part of MICROSOFT EXCEL. And yes it was a popular function, and they should put it back.

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