You find yourself using Excel for work more and more often and, not having particular familiarity with this popular spreadsheet processing program, you are often in difficulty even in carrying out the most trivial operations.
How do you say? I have described exactly what your current situation is and, therefore, would it be useful for you to know how to select two non-adjacent columns in Excel ? No problem: if you want, I’m here to give you my help in this regard.
You will see that, regardless of which device you use the software in question, the thing is really immediate. Read my tips and, in no time at all, selecting the items that interest you will seem like a no-brainer. Come on then! Give me just a few moments of your time and put my “tips” into practice: you can find everything below!
You will see that, regardless of which device you use the software in question, the thing is really immediate. Read my tips and, in no time at all, selecting the items that interest you will seem like a no-brainer. Come on then! Give me just a few moments of your time and put my “tips” into practice: you can find everything below!
Index
- How to select two non-adjacent columns in Excel – Windows
- How to select two non-adjacent columns in Excel: Mac
- How to select two non-adjacent columns in Excel: online
- How to select two non-adjacent columns in Excel – smartphone and tablet
How to select two non-adjacent columns in Excel – Windows
Do you use a computer equipped with the Windows operating system to work on Excel ? Very good! So let’s see immediately how to proceed in this specific case. Once you have started the program in question (if you don’t have it, you can download it in a free trial version as explained here ) and you have opened the file you are interested in, click on the letter that identifies the first column you want to select ( you can find it at the top).
At this point, hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard, and then click on the letter that identifies the other column not adjacent to the first one you want to select and that’s it.
See how easy it is? By always holding down the Ctrl key and then clicking on the letter of the various columns, you can select all the non-adjacent columns (and also the adjacent ones) that interest you.
Finally, this same operation can also be performed by selecting any of the boxes of the first column to be selected, then pressing the key combination Ctrl + space bar , then this key combination again and finally clicking on any of the boxes of the others. columns to include in the selection.
If you do not want to select an entire column but only some boxes of it, press on the first box and then drag the mouse downwards including the other boxes of the column in the selection, making sure that the pointer has the icon
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and not in black (just place the pointer in the center of the box); then hold down the Ctrl key and drag the mouse pointer from one of the boxes in the other column downwards, so as to include in the selection the other cells that interest you (make sure that this time too the pointer is represented by the white + icon ).
The last selection method I recommend using is the one based on the name of the cell ranges of the non-adjacent columns. In this case, to proceed, type in the text field in the upper left corner (the one in which the selected cell is indicated and which contains the two up and down arrows ) the ranges of the names of the separate cells from “;” , then hit Enter .
The ranges of boxes must be written by typing the names of the first and last boxes separated by “:” (eg D1: D10 ). Having said this, therefore, if, for example, you intend to select all the cells of a column included in the range D1 and D10 and those included in the range H1 and H10 of another column, type in the field located at the top left D1: D10 ; H1: H10 and press the Enter key . Convenient, don’t you think?
How to select two non-adjacent columns in Excel: Mac
Want to know how to select two non-adjacent columns in Excel on Mac ? I gladly satisfy you, but I already anticipate that it changes little compared to what has just been written for Windows.
Click, therefore, on the letter (eg F ) that distinguishes the first column you wish to select. Next, hold down the cmd key and click on the letter for the other non-adjacent column you want to select. That’s all!
If you continue to hold down the cmd key and then click, from time to time, on the letters associated with the other columns that interest you, you can select the latter (whether they are adjacent or not, it makes no difference).
If you do not want to select entire columns but only part of them, do this: click on the first cell of the column you are interested in and then drag the mouse down to select the other boxes of the column you are interested in: make sure that the pointer has the white + icon (you just need to place the pointer in the center of the box).
Once this is done, hold down the cmd key and drag the mouse from one of the cells of the other column to be highlighted downwards, including in the selection the other boxes of the latter (also in this case the mouse pointer must have the icon + white ).
Then there is another selection method that I want to recommend, that is the one based on inserting the names of the cell ranges in the field at the top left of the Excel worksheet. In this case, the operation of this procedure is completely similar to what has already been seen in the case of Windows, so I invite you to read the last two paragraphs of the previous chapter .
How to select two non-adjacent columns in Excel: online
As for Excel Online , the free online version of Excel accessible through any browser (as long as you have a Microsoft account ), the instructions to follow to select two or more non-adjacent columns do not differ from those I have already shown you previously for Windows and Mac .
How to select two non-adjacent columns in Excel – smartphone and tablet
Do you want to repeat the steps shown above by selecting multiple non-adjacent columns in the Excel app available on Android (also on alternative stores ) and on iOS / iPadOS ?
I am sorry to tell you that, unfortunately, in this case, the methods examined previously are not valid (I also tested by connecting a physical keyboard to a tablet but the above shortcuts do not work) and the operation, therefore, is not feasible. In any case, if you want some more details on how to select multiple cells in Excel (even on smartphones and tablets), I refer you to my dedicated stud
