How to control Excel Cursor movement?

Is there anyway to customize Excel Cursor so that it moves betwen cells in the following pattern when I press Enter:
A2 => B2 => A3 => B3 => A4 => B4

and so on?

 

I don't believe so, but alternating between enter and tab replicates that pattern. (Tested it now in 2007 and it replicates it exactly. I don't recall if 2003 was smart enough to go back to the prior column or if it required use of a directional key in the mix.)

 

The best you do is the following:

Assuming you run Office 2010:

File (or corner orb under Office 2007) > Options > Advance.

You have what you one as the first item:



You can't specify a specific pastern.

By default:
Enter go down
Tab go right 1 cell.

 

Yeah changing the "enter" behavior you can have it go to the right instead of down with a simple setting thats the only thing I know of.

Often times you have to modify your data entry to match excel rather than excel to match your data if your after speed.

Say you needed to enter a 6x6 table it could be much faster for you to only enter it by columns rather than one row at a time.

Also once the data is on excel in any form you can manipulate it with copy/paste, move, put it into tables, and lots of other stuff. So you may have a sheet with source data but actually have your presented data on another sheet just using the source sheet as a reference.

 

Actually, that's what I did. I have Office 2002. It doesn't help that much since I still have to manually move the cursor down and left everytime I move to a new row. Gregory' suggestion to alternate between Tab and Enter helps somewhat but I still have to alternate between the two keys. I just wish that I only need to press one key to move between cells automatically with the pattern I want.

 

ViciousXUSMC mentioned tables earlier so I tried making one and it might do the trick. I made a table 2x4 table spanning A2 to B5. Enter the data into A2 then press tab, brings you to B2. Enter the data in B2, press tab and it brings it down to A3 and so on. That's what you're looking for, the exception being that you're using the tab key exclusively rather than enter.

Though, again, this is in 2007. Hopefully Microsoft saw the need for that convenient in the older version.

 

That's good enough for me but how do you make a 2x4 table?

 

I dont know for old excel but for 2007 or 2010 just select the cells you want and designate it as a table.

You can still download a free beta of 2010 I think if you need an upgrade, though it will expire at some point.

The other thing you can do that works very well for number only data is learn to use the arrow keys and the number pad at the same time, so you can very easily move up/down/left/right after each entry.

Edit: Here is the 2010 Beta D/L - http://us2.office2010beta.microsoft.com/default.aspx?culture=en-US

It does not expire for several more months I think.

 

OK, I know how to select the cells but once I do that, how do I designate them as a table? Do I need to right click or something? Do I need to do something in the menu?

 

Never used 2002 I have not a clue henra.

In 2010 or 2007 you can select "format as table" from the main menu.

If your not going to want to use the beta because its only temporary, and do not have the money or desire to purchase 2007 or 2010 you can try openoffice its the free alternative and should have most of the features 2007 has, since its basically a clone.

I have never used it personally though.

 

In 2003 there was an icon to create a table on one of the main toolbars. A box, with four small boxes within it. If that isn't present in your version you can create the table by clicking "Insert" near the top. In the dropdown menu "table" should be there.

 

could probably write a VBA macro to accomplish this too, but again, you will need to train yourself to hit the macro key instead of the ENTER key