Page 144 - Excel 2013 All-in-One For Dummies

126 Making Cell Selections
A range by any other name
Cell ranges are always noted in formulas by the first and last cell that you select, separated by a colon (:); therefore, if you select cell A1 as the first cell and cell H10 as the last cell and then use the range in a formula, the cell range appears as A1:H10. This same block of cells can just as well be noted as H10:A1 if you selected cell H10 before cell A1. Likewise, the same range can be equally noted as H1:A10
or A10:H1, depending upon which corner cell you select first and which opposite corner you select last. Keep in mind that despite the vari- ous range notations that you can use (A1:H10, H10:A1, H1:A10, and A10:H1), you are working with the same block of cells, the main differ- ence being that each has a different active cell whose address appears in the Name box on the Formula bar (A1, H10, H1, and A10, respectively).
This is because Excel’s Live Preview feature enables you to see how a new font, font size, or table or cell style would look on your selected data before you actually apply it (saving you tons of time otherwise wasted applying format after format until you finally select the right one). And thanks to having buttons for all the most commonly used formatting commands right up front on the Home tab, you can now readily fine-tune the formatting of a cell in a worksheet by making almost all needed changes right from the Ribbon.
Making Cell Selections
Although you have to select the cells of the worksheet that you want to work with before you can accomplish many tasks used in building and editing a typical spreadsheet, perhaps no task requires cell selection like that of for- matting. With the exception of the special Format as Table feature (which automatically selects the table to which its multiple formats are applied), selecting the cells whose appearance you want to enhance or modify is always your first step in their formatting.
In Excel, you can select a single cell, a block of cells (known as a cell range), or various discontinuous cell ranges (also known as a nonadjacent selection). Figure 2-1 shows a nonadjacent selection that consists of several different cell ranges (the smallest range is the single cell I9).
Note that a simple cell selection consisting of a single cell range is denoted in the worksheet both by highlighting the selected cells in a light blue color as well as by extending the border of the cell cursor so that it encompasses all the highlighted cells. In a nonadjacent cell selection, however, all selected cells are highlighted but only the active cell (the one whose address is dis- played in the Name Box on the Formula bar) contains the cell cursor (whose borders are quite thin when compared to the regular cell cursor).