Windows Keyboard Shortcut of the Day

F2: Edit a cell in Excel

Posted in Microsoft Excel by estephen on April 11th, 2007

Forget the clumsy task of clicking in the formula bar when editing a cell in Microsoft Excel. Instead, press F2 and you’ll be editing the cell right in the spreadsheet where the cell is.

Once you’re editing a cell, you can use the standard navigation keys (Home, End, Ctrl+Left Arrow, Ctrl+Right Arrow) to get to where you want, then press Enter to accept your changes (or press Esc to cancel).

For example, suppose you need to change the number “151,000″ into “15,100.” Don’t retype it! Just press F2, then press Backspace to get rid of the extra zero, then press Enter. Done!

5 Responses to 'F2: Edit a cell in Excel'

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  1. Bean said,

    on April 12th, 2007 at 6:25 am

    That’s also a handy shortcut for the similar-feeling “edit filename” when using Windows Explorer.

  2. Bean said,

    on April 12th, 2007 at 6:26 am

    Er, I suppose “Rename” is the proper name for the Windows command.

  3. estephen said,

    on April 12th, 2007 at 8:54 am

    Good point!

  4. eleadley said,

    on April 17th, 2007 at 10:39 am

    when I hit F2, I get taken to a new word document. What am I doing wrong?

    Thx.

  5. estephen said,

    on May 11th, 2007 at 3:07 pm

    Susan Sabo, over at the Productivity Cafe, points out that F2 can be used to edit in a lot of applications, not just Excel. For example, in any File dialog box or in the Windows Explorer, you can use F2 to rename the selected file.

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