How to Select Non Adjacent Cells in Excel? 5 Simple Ways
(Note: This guide on how to select non adjacent cells in Excel is suitable for all Excel versions including Office 365)
In Excel, we need to select cells to perform certain operations or to use functions. In those cases, we either select whole rows, columns, individual cells, or a group of cells.
There are a variety of methods to select adjacent cells. You can either select them by clicking and dragging, or by selecting adjacent cells by holding the Shift Key. But, selecting cells using these methods only selects the adjacent cells. What would you do if the cells are far from each other and you need to select them?
In this article, I will show you 5 ways to select non adjacent cells in Excel.
You’ll Learn
- Using the Ctrl Key
- Using the Function Keys
- Using Name Box
- Using Go-To
- Select Non-Adjacent Cells With Similar Values
Watch our video on how to select non adjacent cells in Excel
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Using the Ctrl Key
Holding the Ctrl key and selecting the cells is one of the best ways to select non adjacent cells in Excel. This approach is pretty straightforward.
To select non-adjacent cells, first, select a cell. Once you click on it, this becomes the active cell. In this example, we have selected the cell E5, so it becomes the active cell.
By pressing and holding the Ctrl key, select the cells you want to select. You can either click on each cell or use the mouse and drag to select a range of cells. Once you have selected all the necessary cells, leave the Ctrl key.
Using the Function Keys
In some cases, you might have to use only the keyboard and perform certain operations. When confronted with that situation, you can use the function keys to select the non-adjacent cells.
To select the non-adjacent using function keys, click on any cell to act as an active cell. In this case, we’ll consider C5 as the active cell.
Now, press the function key F8. This enables the Extended Selection mode. You can see the Extended Selection mode enabled from the bottom-left of the spreadsheet near the Accessibility status.
Since the sheet is in Extended Selection mode, you can use the arrow keys to select the adjacent cells. If you don’t want to select any adjacent cells, you can just skip to the next step.
To select the non-adjacent cells, press Shift+F8. This, in turn, enables the Add or Remove Selection mode.
Now, use the arrow keys to move the selection and select the cells you want. In this case, we move to cell J10 using the arrow keys.
Once you have moved to another non-adjacent cell, press F8 again to enable the Extended Selection mode and select the cell or group of cells.
After you have selected the non-adjacent cells, press F8 to get back to Normal mode.
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Using Name Box
Another easy way to select non adjacent cells in Excel is by using their cell names to make the selection.
To select the cells, first, click on any cell. This marks the cell as the active cell.
Now, click on the Name Box in the top-left corner of the spreadsheet.
Type the name of the cells separated by a comma in the Name Box. You can enter the name of single cells, or the range of cells separated by a comma.
Press Enter. This selects all the non-adjacent cells in the spreadsheet.
Using Go-To
Another way to select non-adjacent cells is by using the Go-To option. This way of selecting non-adjacent cells is similar to selecting cells using the Name Box option.
To select non-adjacent cells using the Go-To option, navigate to Home. Under Editing, click on the dropdown from Find & Select and click on Go-To. Or, use the keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+H.
This opens up a Go To dialog box.
Since we have selected cell B5, it becomes the active cell and populates in the reference cell field.
Enter the name of the cells, or a range of cells separated by a comma, and click on OK.
This selects the non-adjacent cells in the Excel spreadsheet.
Select Non-Adjacent Cells With Similar Values
This is another special case to select non adjacent cells in Excel. However, this method can only be used if the content of the cells is similar.
To find cells with similar values, navigate to Home. Under Editing, click on the dropdown from Find & Select and click on Find. Or, you can use the keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+F.
This opens up a Find and Replace dialog box.
Click Find and enter the value you want to locate. Click on Find All.
This shows the location and description of the cells with the specific value.
Click on Ctrl+A to select all the cells with similar values.
Now, either click on Close or the X button to close the Find and Replace dialog box and keep all the selected cells.
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Closing Thoughts
Selecting non-adjacent cells in Excel can be very helpful when replacing texts, performing any function and operations, or even deleting certain values from the spreadsheet.
In this guide, we saw how to select non adjacent cells in Excel using 5 easy ways. Depending on your preference you can choose to use any method to select the cells.
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Simon Calder
Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!
