Forum Discussion
when type a formula, i would like to move from the active cell not the formula cell
Hi all,
when I type formula in A1, see I would like it to be A1=C4+C5. I select C4 but if I want to move down to C5, it actually goes back to A1 and I need to go through all the cells again to choose C5. What can I do to set the active cell as C4 and the next one just move from C4?
4 Replies
Your description is a bit unclear, I'm afraid, so I'm going to be guessing at what you actually mean.
First of all, I'm going to assume that the formula you want in A1 is
=C4+C5
From there, the ambiguity continues, as I'm not quite sure what you mean by What can I do to set the active cell as C4 and the next one just move from C4?
What, for example, do you mean by "active cell as C4"? And what do you mean by "and the next one just move from C4?
So I'm going to assume that what you are wanting to do is make C4 an "anchor" or constant reference, and the others vary, cell by cell.
So IF that's what you mean, you do the anchoring by using an absolute cell reference. In which case, your formula in cell A1 would be
=$C$4+C5
and then, as you go down from A1, copying the formula down, it would become
=$C$4+C6
=$C$4+C7
=$C$4+C8
=$C$4+C9
and so forth.
But IS that what you mean? If not, please come back and ask. Here's a very good reference source on the subject of absolute references: https://exceljet.net/glossary/absolute-reference
Thanks a lot for your reply. Sorry that I didn't make myself clear. My question is more basic and may sound even stupid...
If I want to type a formula in a cell, say A1, I need to reference other cells to complete the formula. Using the example above, if I put C4+C5 in cell A1, My cursor is current in A1 and I firstly need to use the down array key to move to Row 4, then the right arrow key to move to column C (using keyboard not mouse). After that I will type in "+", then go to C5. However, sometimes it is simply for me to press the down array key one more time, as the cursor starting from C4 to move around, sometimes the cursor goes back to the formula cell (A1) and i need to press the down array key to Row 5 and then the right arrow key to column C again, duplicating the steps have done before.
I would like to ask if there is any setup I can change the way it works? thanks!
