Active cell

Updated: 10/07/2019 by Estimator Hope

Active cell in a spreadsheet.

Alternatively referred to as a cell pointer, current prison cell, or selected cell, an active cell is a rectangular box that highlights the jail cell in a spreadsheet. An active cell helps identify what cell is being worked with and where data will be entered.

Active cell overview

In the picture below of Microsoft Excel, you tin can encounter that the agile prison cell is D8 and is shown in the superlative-left corner.

Overview of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

Tip

When you showtime start Excel the active jail cell is the first prison cell, which is always A1. You tin can motility the jail cell pointer past pressing the arrow keys or Enter on your keyboard, or you can click whatever jail cell using your computer mouse. If you lot're using the keyboard, you lot can as well press the F2 to edit the active cell.

How is an agile cell identified?

An active cell or selected cell can be identified many ways. Get-go, as shown in the moving-picture show above of Microsoft Excel, the active cell has a assuming black box around the cell. Likewise, the cavalcade and row are highlighted. In our example picture show, the column header "D" and row header "viii" are highlighted in yellow. The active cell is likewise shown in the top-left portion of the window (Name box), which is "D8" in our example.

Where is the content of the active prison cell is displayed?

The content of the active cell is shown in the formula bar. In the screenshot above, the formula bar displays the formula in cell D8. The formula, "=SUM(D2:D5)", adds the values of cells D2 through D5 to compute their full value, $162.00. When prison cell D8 is selected, both the cell and the formula bar display the formula. When any other cell is selected, cell D8 shows the upshot of its formula, the total $162.00.

How do you modify the agile cell?

You can change the active cell by clicking any other cell with your left mouse button or with the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the selected cell. If the cell contains no data, you can begin typing to insert new data into that cell. If the jail cell already contains data, you can click up on the formula bar to change that information or printing the F2 on the keyboard.

Which cell is agile when Excel is kickoff opened?

When y'all open a new Excel spreadsheet for the first fourth dimension, the first cell is selected by default, which is A1 (the first jail cell of row A and column one). If you've worked on an Excel spreadsheet in the past, the active prison cell is the last active cell position. For example, if you last left the spreadsheet on cell C65, when information technology is saved and re-opened, it should return to prison cell C65.

Absolute prison cell reference, Active, Cell, Name box, Spreadsheet terms