Doing Direct Cell Editing

Direct cell editing offers you an alternative to editing the data or formula you've entered into a cell on the Formula bar above the sheet's work area. To directly edit the contents of a cell, you double-click the cell - or press F2 - to place the Insertion point in its contents, and then you edit its characters as you would on the Formula bar (or in a Word document). When you finish modifying the cell's contents, you complete the edit by pressing the Enter key or by clicking the Enter button on the Formula bar (the button with the green check mark). To bail on the edit and restore the original contents, press Esc.

Pressing F2 to direct edit always positions the Insertion point at the very end of the cell entry. When you double-click the cell, Excel places the Insertion point as close as possible to the position of the white cross in that cell.

The question inevitably arises as to when it's more efficient to edit a cell entry directly versus editing it on the Formula bar. For me, this decision depends upon the length of the cell entry and its position in the spreadsheet. When dealing with really long and complex formulas in a cell, editing them directly in the cell can end up obscuring the cells in the surrounding region to the right and below the cell, which is okay unless you need to refer to these cells in your edit. In such a case, you would find it much more beneficial to edit the cell's formula on the Formula bar. This leaves most of the worksheet unconcealed except at the very top where the multiple lines for the Formula bar obscure the column header and the first rows of the sheet.