ENTER MODALITY

To modify a cell without cancelling its content, you have to enter by Enter modality (cell).
In order to know if you are in Enter modality, look at the status bar down the worksheet (in normal modality, you see “Ready” written).

MODIFYING THE CELLS

To enter in Modify modality, you can use various methods.
1st method: you directly click on the cell to modify.
2nd method: activate the cell to modify (by a click or moving with the arrow keys) and press the key "F2" by keyboard.
3rd method: activate the cell to modify (by a click or moving with the arrow keys) and click inside the bar of the formula.

Now that you are set in Modify modality, you can use:
The key "DELETE" to delete the type on the right of the cursor;
the key "BACKSPACE" to delete the type on the left of the cursor;
the key "END" to set the cursor at the end;
the key "HOME" to set the cursor to the beginning;
the combination of keys "CTRL" + "LEFT ARROW KEY" to set the cursor to the beginning of the word;
the combination of keys "CTRL" + "RIGHT KEY ARROW" to set the cursor at the end of the word.

One the change is made, press the key "ENTER" to confirm it,
or press the key "ESC" to cancel it.

CONTENT OF THE CELLS

Every single cell can contain TEXT, VALUES or FORMULAS.
The values can be expressed in quantity or in date and/or time.

TYPING NUMBERS

When you type numbers in the cells, you can use the following methods that expedite the entering operations.
Type ,34 rather than 0,34.
Type 12,5 rather than 12,50.
They are small details. They are used for saving a little of time!

TYPING DATES AND TIME

If you apply one of the Excel default date and time formats, the program will recognize the date and the time as “value” (or on these formats it will be able to make calculations).
Some examples of time format (equivalent) are:
3.21 PM - 3.21.04 PM - 15.21 - 15.21.04
Examples of date formats (equivalent) are:
25/11/2004 - 25-nov-04 - 25-nov - nov-04

CRAZY CELLS!

Open a new Excel worksheet.
Type on the cell A1 11/4 and press Enter.
You will see "4-Nov" to visualize on the cell.
Type on the cell A2 11/04/08 and press Enter.
You will see "11/04/2008" to visualize on the cell.
And up to here, everything is ok!
Now delete the content of the cell A1, type 11/04/08 and press Enter.
Delete the content of the cell A2, type 25 and press Enter.
But what happens...?
Entering the dates on the cells "A1" and "A2", these last ones have “taken” automatically this format and they cannot simply be deleted by the key “DELETE” or replaced with values of different format.

DELETING EVERYTHING

To delete the content of the cell, and the format of the cell,
or, to restore the cell to its original state,
1 - select the concerned cells
2 - from the "Home tab"
3 - click on the icon "Clear" (under the autosum)


4 - click on "Clear all".


If you want to keep the data instead,
4a - click on "Clear formats".

THE CELL FORMAT

If you want to change the format of a cell instead,
1 - select the concerned cell
2 - from the "Home tab"
3 - open the drop-down menu clicking on the small triangle on the right of the "Number format"


4 - click on the concerned format ("Number", in the example).

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