Excel – How to move selection in Excel

microsoft excel

I know how to create or extend selections, i.e., via F8 or Shift F8. When I have created the desired selection, I would like to move that particular selection a few cells to the right and/or down.

I now need to select the similar form selection on another place in the worksheet. Does anyone know how I can do this?

Example:

Selection made on A1..B3, C3 and D5 and, for instance, made it Yellow. I now want to move this complete selection four places to the right, to E1..F3, H3 and I5 (to be able to make it another color).

It has nothing to do with the cut and paste to move cells.

Best Answer

Windows Microsoft Excel 2013, options available only for contiguous selections (say A10:A20):

Option A (moving any selection around):
1. Make your selection A10:A20.
2. Press Shift and keep it pressed.
3. Press → until you reach your desired symmetrical column where you want your selection pattern cloned. (selection is now let's say A10:D20)
4. Press Tab while still keeping Shift pressed until it lands into D column (usually it's only once)
5. Press again → and the selection will shrink from A to D until D is selected.
6. Release Shift.

You now have D10:D20 selected. Seems long but once you practice a bit it's lightning fast.

Option B (if only for formatting cloning), answered previously too:
1. Make your selection (A10:A20).
2. Ctrl + C (copy)
3. Let's say you want to clone formatting to D10:D20.
4a. Right click D10 cell.
5a. Paste special menu,
6a. Choose Formatting (or press R).

Or, if you want it faster, keyboard only, from point 3:
4b. Press Alt + E + S (paste special window opens)
5b. Press T (format option is selected)
6b. Press Enter and voila.

Hope this helps, I needed it as well to clone some conditional formatting faster.

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