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Is there a keyboard shortcut key to select all the text in the current cell in Excel, if you are in the process of editing the cell?

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What do you want to do by selecting all the cell's text? because when you move between cell by keyboard if you press cmd+c you can copy all the cell content and if start typing it clear ell previous data and insert your new data. – Am1rr3zA Nov 15 '11 at 15:18
It's true that it isn't ever really necessary to select all when in the cell, but via reflex I often find myself trying to do it. – Lorin Hochstein Nov 15 '11 at 20:54
@LorinHochstein I agree, reflexively I find it more intuitive to select and replace the text, rather than delete and replace. – Paul Wagland Sep 20 '12 at 8:34

4 Answers

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The answer to this question:

  • ^-U to edit the cell
  • ⇧-alt-Home to select all text
  • ⇧-alt-Left to select one word to the left
  • ⇧-alt-Right to select one word to the right
  • ⇧-alt-Down to select from the current location to the end of the line.
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up vote 2 down vote

When editing a cell, a quick way to select all the contents is to place the cursor at the beginning of contents and hit shift + end, then place the cursor at end of contents and hit shift + home.

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up vote 1 down vote

I read this as 2 questions.

Q. Is there a keyboard shortcut key to select all the text in the current cell in Excel?

A. command+c for Mac or control+c for Windows while the cell is selected. Choose a new cell and command+v or control+v to paste.

Q. If you are in the process of editing the cell?

A. It is a two step process, command+a or control+a to select all, then command+c or control+c to copy.

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1  
Can you confirm that command+a or control+a works for you to select all when editing a cell? It doesn't for me. – Lorin Hochstein Nov 15 '11 at 20:53
For some strange reason the first time I hit Cmd+A it didn't select it but I hit it again and it did and then it worked every time after that. Strange. – drewish Dec 22 '11 at 19:08
Neither ⌘-A nor ^-A works for me, when trying to edit the contents of a cell in Excel, not even pressing them multiple times as suggested by @drewish. – Paul Wagland Sep 20 '12 at 8:32
up vote 0 down vote

There is no direct way. Please refer the official page for this.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/excel-help/select-cells-and-their-contents-in-a-worksheet-HP005202468.aspx

Use of native methods (go to end, use SHIFT+Arrow keys)... wondering why ^A is not supported there. MS S**ks sometimes.

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