Navigate Worksheets

An Excel worksheet can span 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows; fortunately, very few worksheets get this big, but knowing how to navigate through a worksheet is another critical Excel topic you’ll need to know before you can master Excel. This lesson explains the most common ways to navigate an Excel worksheet.

Select a Cell

1. Select a single cell by using:
   • The Mouse: Click any cell with the cross pointer.
   • The Keyboard: Move the cell pointer using your keyboard’s arrow keys.
   

To help you know where you are in a worksheet, Excel displays row headings, identified by numbers, on the left side of the worksheet, and column headings, identified by letters, at the top of the worksheet. Each cell in a worksheet has its own cell address made from its column letter and row number—such as cell A1, A2, B1, B2, etc. You can immediately find the address of a cell by looking at the Name Box, which shows the current cell address.

Jump to a Cell

The Name Box is an easy way to get to the cell you want.

1. Click the Name box.
2. Type the cell reference you want to go to.
   

   For example, if you want to go to cell D4, type D4.

3. Press Enter.

Go To Dialog Box

The Go To dialog box can be helpful when worksheets start getting very large. Here’s how to use it:

1. Click the Find & Select button on the Home tab.
2. Select Go To.

   Press Ctrl + G to open the Go To dialog box.

3. Enter or select the cell reference you want to go to.
4. Click OK.

Excel jumps to the specified cell.

Navigation Shortcuts

Excel has several shortcuts that make it fast to get around your worksheets; they’re included in this table: