Excel Video 241 will help you make entering data easier by controlling what happens after you hit Enter in Excel. Instead of hitting an arrow key to move to the next cell, you can get Excel to move to the next cell for you as you enter data. If you have a long list of numbers or other data to enter in Excel, this tip can be a real time saver. I usually enter a numbers using the 10-key area of my keyboard and it’s faster for me to hit Enter every time I’m done with a number than it is to select an arrow key to go to the next cell.
The tip I use is to highlight the area of cells I’m going to enter data in. Excel uses my highlight to navigate to the next cell when I hit Enter. The advantage of this approach is its flexibility. It’s easy to change from entering in rows to entering in columns and back. Just be sure that you’ve highlighted enough cells so that Excel doesn’t loop back to the start of your highlighted area before you’ve finished entering data. I’ll also show you how to set Excel’s default response to navigation when hitting Enter. My preference is to stay in the same cell, but you’ll see how to customize the setting to get the results you want.
