INTRO : Entering Data, Selecting Cells, and Dragging

Move the cursor to a cell such as A1 and click the left mouse button. This is called selecting the cell. The cell selected is called the active cell. To enter data into the active cell, type a number or any character and press the ENTER key. Whatever is typed appears in the active cell. If the cursor moves to another cell when the ENTER key is depressed, click on the cell in which the data was entered and the data appears not only in the active cell but in the Formula Bar also. See Figure 1 for an example where the number 3 is entered in cell A1.

Figure 1. Data in the active cell and the Formula Bar

The small dark square at the lower right-hand corner of the active cell is called the fill handle. If the mouse cursor is moved until it is on top of the fill handle, it will change to a plus sign.
To select more than one square, move the mouse cursor over the fill handle, hold down the left mouse button, move the cursor down to the lower right-hand corner of cell A3, and release the mouse button. This is called dragging.
The cells A1:A3 become dark (except for the active cell A1) and are said to have been selected.

Figure 2. Selecting cells
As can be seen in Figure 2, cells in a row can be selected by dragging to the right, and a rectangular group of cells can be selected by dragging to the right and down. Another method of selecting cells is to hold down the SHIFT key and use the arrow keys to move the cursor over the area to be selected and then release the SHIFT key. Notice that in all of these cases the active cell remains a white color.