Before performing various operations with table cells, the user should select a cell or a group of cells with which the operation will be performed.
To select an individual cell one should just click this cell. The selected cell is marked by a double frame (see figure 48-4, a).
To select a rectangular block of cells it is possible to move the cursor from one corner of the block to the opposite one while holding down the mouse button. Another way of selecting the block is using the key Shift. It is necessary first to click in one of the corner cells of the block and then click in the opposite corner while holding down the key Shift.
To select the whole row or column of the table it is enough to click the number of the row (in the left part of the table pane) or the number of the column (in the upper part of the pane). It is possible to select several neighboring rows or columns moving the cursor by their numbers.
When selecting the block, one of its cells, to be more exact, the cell from which selection started, plays a special role and is called an active cell. White displaying background is used for the active cell while the remaining selected cells are displayed against gray background (see figure 39-4, b).
a) one selected cell b) selected block of cells
c) composite selection of cells
Figure 48-4. Examples of selecting cells
The status bar located at the bottom of the window displays information about the active cell.
A set of selected cells should not necessarily have a rectangular shape. It is possible to add additional cells to this set clicking them while holding down the key Ctrl or add selected blocks also holding down the key Ctrl when selecting them. The set of selected cells obtained using the key Ctrl is called composite selection. In any case only one of all selected cells will be considered to be the active cell. It is determined by the last operation of selection.
At figure 48-4 an example of composite selection of cells is shown.
The menu command Edit+Select All (or a combination of keys <Ctrl+A>) selects all cells in the table.
The menu command Edit+Reset Selection (or a combination of keys <Ctrl+E>) resets selection of cells.
In the field Cells range located in the left part of data toolbar ranges of addresses of selected cells are indicated. An individual cell is specified by its address, and a rectangular block – in the form of a pair of addresses of top left and bottom right cells separated by a colon. If selection of cells was performed in several stages using the key Ctrl, all selected cells and blocks divided by a semicolon are enumerated in the field.
The value in the field Cells range can be changed from the keyboard. Changing of the cell range should be completed by pressing the key Enter. The set of selected cells will be adjusted in accordance with description of the range specified from the keyboard.
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