Enter data manually in worksheet cells

You can enter numbers (with or without fixed decimal points), text, dates, or times in one cell, in several cells at once, or on more than one worksheet .

Important A worksheet may have been protected by you or someone else to prevent data from being changed accidentally. On a protected worksheet, you may be able to select cells to view the data, but you won't be able to type information in cells that are locked. In most cases, a protected worksheet should not be unprotected unless you have permission to do so from the person who created it. To unprotect the worksheet (if appropriate), click Unprotect Sheet in the Changes group on the Review tab. If a password was set when the worksheet protection was applied, you must type that password to unprotect the worksheet.What do you want to do?

Enter numbers or text

Enter numbers with a fixed decimal point

Enter dates or times

Enter the same data into several cells at once

Enter the same data on other worksheets

Enter numbers or text

1. On the worksheet, click a cell.
2. Type the numbers or text that you want, and then press ENTER or TAB.

   Tip To start data on a new line within a cell, enter a line break by pressing ALT+ENTER.

Notes:

• By default, pressing ENTER moves the selection down one cell, and pressing TAB moves the selection one cell to the right. You cannot change the direction of the move for the TAB key, but you can specify a different direction for the ENTER key.

  How to change the direction for the ENTER key

  1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Excel Options.
  2. In the Advanced category, under Edit, select the After pressing Enter, move selection check box, and then click the direction that you want in the Direction box.
• When you press TAB to enter data in several cells in a row and then press ENTER at the end of that row, the selection moves to the beginning of the next row.

• A cell may display ##### when it contains data that has a number format that is wider than the column width. To see all text, you must increase the width of the column.

  How to change the column width

  1. Click the cell for which you want to change the column width.
  2. On the Home tab, in the Cells group, click Format.

     

  3. Under Cell Size, do one of the following:
     • To fit all text in the cell, click AutoFit Column Width.
     • To specify a larger column width, click Column Width, and then type the width that you want in the Column width box.
• You can display multiple lines of text inside a cell by wrapping the text.

  How to wrap text in a cell

  1. Click the cell in which you want to wrap the text.
  2. On the Home tab, in the Alignment group, click Wrap Text.

     

     Note If the text is a single long word, the characters won't wrap; you can widen the column or decrease the font size to see all of the text. If not all of the text is visible after you wrap the text, you may need to adjust the height of the row. On the Home tab, in the Cells group, click Format, and then under Cell Size click AutoFit Row.

• In Microsoft Office Excel, the appearance of a number in a cell is separate from the number that is stored in the cell. When a number that you enter is rounded, in most circumstances, only the displayed number is rounded. Calculations use the actual number stored in the cell, not the number that is displayed.
• After you type numbers in a cell, you can change the format in which they are displayed.

  How to change the number format

  1. Click the cell that contains the numbers that you want to format.
  2. On the Home tab, in the Number group, point to General, and then click the format that you want.

     

     Tip To select a number format from the list of available formats, click More, and then click the format that you want to use in the Category list.

• For numbers that do not need to be calculated in Excel, such as phone numbers, you can format them as text by applying the Text format to empty cells before typing the numbers.

  How to format numbers as text

  1. Select an empty cell.
  2. On the Home tab, in the Number group, point to General, and then click Text.

     

  3. Type the numbers that you want in the formatted cell.

     Note Numbers that you typed before you applied the Text format to the cells need to be reentered in the formatted cells. To quickly reenter numbers as text, select each cell, press F2, and then press ENTER.

Enter numbers with a fixed decimal point

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Excel Options.
2. Click Advanced, and then under Editing options, select the Automatically insert a decimal point check box.
3. In the Places box, enter a positive number for digits to the right of the decimal point or a negative number for digits to the left of the decimal point.

   For example, if you enter 3 in the Places box and then type 2834 in a cell, the value will be 2.834. If you enter -3 in the Places box and then type 283, the value will be 283000.

4. On the worksheet, click a cell, and then enter the number that you want.

   Note Data that you typed in cells before selecting the Fixed decimal option is not affected.

   Tip To temporarily override the Fixed decimal option, type a decimal point when you enter the number.

Enter dates or times

1. On the worksheet, click a cell.
2. Type a date or time as follows:
   • For a date, use a slash mark or a hyphen to separate the parts of a date; for example, type 9/5/2002 or 5-Sep-2002.

     Tip To enter the current date, press CTRL+; (semicolon).

   • For a time that is based on the 12-hour clock, type a space, and then type a or p after the time; for example, 9:00 p. Otherwise, Excel enters the time as AM.

     Tip To enter the current time, press CTRL+SHIFT+; (semicolon).

Notes:

• To enter a date or time that stays current when you reopen a worksheet, you can use the TODAY and NOW functions.
• When a date or time is typed in a cell, it appears either in a default date or time format or in a format that was applied to the cell before the date or time was entered. The default date or time format is based on the date and time settings in the Regional and Language Options dialog box (Control Panel). If these date and time settings have changed, any existing dates or times in your workbooks that have not been formatted by using the Format Cells command also change.
• If you want to use the default date or time format, click the cell that contains the date or time, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+# or CTRL+SHIFT+@.

Enter the same data into several cells at once

1. Select the cells into which you want to enter the same data. The cells do not have to be adjacent.

   How to select cells, ranges, rows, or columns

   To select	Do this
   A single cell	Click the cell, or press the arrow keys to move to the cell.
   A range of cells	Click the first cell in the range, and then drag to the last cell, or hold down SHIFT while you press the arrow keys to extend the selection. You can also select the first cell in the range, and then press F8 to extend the selection by using the arrow keys. To stop extending the selection, press F8 again.
   A large range of cells	Click the first cell in the range, and then hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell in the range. You can scroll to make the last cell visible.
   All cells on a worksheet	Click the Select All button. To select the entire worksheet, you can also press CTRL+A. Note If the worksheet contains data, CTRL+A selects the current region. Pressing CTRL+A a second time selects the entire worksheet.
   Nonadjacent cells or cell ranges	Select the first cell or range of cells, and then hold down CTRL while you select the other cells or ranges. You can also select the first cell or range of cells, and then press SHIFT+F8 to add another nonadjacent cell or range to the selection. To stop adding cells or ranges to the selection, press SHIFT+F8 again. Note You cannot cancel the selection of a cell or range of cells in a nonadjacent selection without canceling the entire selection.
   An entire row or column	Click the row or column heading. Row heading Column heading You can also select cells in a row or column by selecting the first cell and then pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key (RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW for rows, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW for columns). Note If the row or column contains data, CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key selects the row or column to the last used cell. Pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key a second time selects the entire row or column.
   Adjacent rows or columns	Drag across the row or column headings. Or select the first row or column; then hold down SHIFT while you select the last row or column.
   Nonadjacent rows or columns	Click the column or row heading of the first row or column in your selection; then hold down CTRL while you click the column or row headings of other rows or columns that you want to add to the selection.
   The first or last cell in a row or column	Select a cell in the row or column, and then press CTRL+ARROW key (RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW for rows, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW for columns).
   The first or last cell on a worksheet or in a Microsoft Office Excel table	Press CTRL+HOME to select the first cell on the worksheet or in an Excel list. Press CTRL+END to select the last cell on the worksheet or in an Excel list that contains data or formatting.
   Cells to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower-right corner)	Select the first cell, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+END to extend the selection of cells to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower-right corner).
   Cells to the beginning of the worksheet	Select the first cell, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+HOME to extend the selection of cells to the beginning of the worksheet.
   More or fewer cells than the active selection	Hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell that you want to include in the new selection. The rectangular range between the active cell and the cell that you click becomes the new selection.

   Tip To cancel a selection of cells, click any cell on the worksheet.

2. In the active cell, type the data, and then press CTRL+ENTER.

   Tip You can also enter the same data into several cells by using the fill handle to automatically fill data in worksheet cells. For more information, see Fill data in worksheet cells.

Enter the same data on other worksheets

If you already entered data on one worksheet, you can quickly fill this data into corresponding cells on other worksheets.

1. Click the tab of the worksheet that contains the data. Then hold down CTRL while you click the tabs of the worksheets into which you want to fill the data.

   Note If you don't see the tab that you want, click the tab scrolling buttons to display the tab, and then click the tab.

   

2. In the worksheet, select the cells that contain the data that you entered.
3. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Fill, and then click Across Worksheets.

   

4. Under Fill, select the option that you want.

Notes:

• Data that you type appears in all selected worksheets, and may inadvertently replace existing data. To avoid replacing existing data, view worksheets at the same time.

  How to view worksheets at the same time

  1. On the View tab, in the Window group, click New Window.

     

  2. Switch to the new window, and then click the sheet tab of the worksheet that you want to view.

     Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each worksheet that you want to view.

  3. On the View tab, in the Window group, click Arrange All.
• To cancel a selection of multiple worksheets, click any unselected worksheet. If an unselected worksheet is not visible, right-click the sheet tab of a selected worksheet, and then click Ungroup Sheets.

See also:

• Change the color of text
• Fill data automatically in worksheet cells
• Insert or delete cells, rows, and columns
• Turn automatic completion of cell entries on or off
• Undo, redo, or repeat an action