Putting the Cell Pointer in the Right Direction

As you're probably well aware, Excel attempts to make the drudgery of data entry in the worksheet's cells as efficient as possible by setting it up so that the program automatically moves the cell pointer down one cell in the same column when you finish what you're doing and press Enter. (Of course, you can always click the Enter button on the Formula bar to complete an entry or edit rather than press the Enter key.)

What you may not be aware of is that you can easily alter the behavior of the Enter key so that it moves the cell pointer in another direction or doesn't move the cell pointer at all. To change the direction that the cell pointer moves when you press Enter, open the Edit tab of the Options dialog box and select any of the following options in the Direction drop-down list box to replace the default Down option:

• Right to move the cell pointer to the cell in the next column to the right in the same row
• Up to move the cell pointer to the cell in the row immediately above in the same column
• Left to move the cell pointer to the cell in the previous column to the left in the same row

To prevent Excel from moving the cell pointer out of the current cell when you press Enter, deselect the Move Selection After Enter check box on the Edit tab.

The best reason for changing the direction that the cell pointer moves upon pressing Enter is when you find yourself editing a data list or table of spreadsheet data in that particular direction. Here are a few examples:

• If you find that you're editing the entries across the rows of a table from left to right (the direction we read), you would select Right as the Direction option.
• If you're doing the editing across the rows of a table from right to left (a direction I tend to favor due to my left-handiness), you would select Left as the Direction option.
• If you were editing the columns of an Excel data list (also known by the misnomer, database) from the last record (at times, the most recent record) at the bottom upwards towards the first record, it would make perfect sense for you to select Up as the Direction option.