[XL2004: 11.3.7] F8 and the status bar

[Hylton Boothroyd]

The following entry in Excel Help does not quite agree with my
experience: for me the word "EXT" is never visible.

The selected area grows when I click a cell or
press keys to move around.
- If "EXT" appears in the status bar, press F8 to turn
off the extend-selection option.

F8 correctly toggles the action extend/don't_extend, but since it looks
as though it could be very useful in selecting larger-than-screen areas
in my data sheets I would like to know whether it is on or off!

Any pointers?

 

[CyberTaz]

Yeaha, Hylton - I personally hate the "feature" so I'll offer the pointer to
avoid it altogether

Seriously, there are any number of ways to select even a large area & most
are more effective as well as less frustrating. Here are a couple which I
find far more useful:

1) Shift+Click - Select one cell then (scroll if necessary) hold Shift while
you click the cell in the opposite diagonal corner of the range you want to
select (i.e., click B10, Shift+Click R327) - no dragging, or

2) Click in the Name Box & type the range reference just as you would in a
formula (i.e., B10:R327), then press return.

You may get some other suggestions as well, but you might also check out
Help on the topic: selecting data.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

The following entry in Excel Help does not quite agree with my
experience: for me the word "EXT" is never visible.


F8 correctly toggles the action extend/don't_extend, but since it looks
as though it could be very useful in selecting larger-than-screen areas
in my data sheets I would like to know whether it is on or off!

For me, EXT appears properly in the status bar, just to the right of the
Numlock indicator (which is itself just to the right of the Caps Lock
indicator).

 

[Hylton Boothroyd]

For me, EXT appears properly in the status bar, just to the right of the
Numlock indicator (which is itself just to the right of the Caps Lock
indicator).

Thank you. It now also appears properly for me!

I just don't know what to make of the experience: but the pointer to
exactly where to look was what I needed. I think I might have confused
using the slider to re-position the sheet sideways with opening the
window wide enough to reveal the info.