Highlight cell contents

Are there shortcut keys for highlighting the cells contents (similar to double clicking the cell followed by another double click)? I need to be able to copy from excel and paste into another application without the trailing tab or delimeter. Currently, I double click the cell to activate the cursor inside the cell and then another double click. Is there a shortcut key or another way of accomplishing this? Or at the very minimum, activate the cursor inside the cell?

after selectingg a cell press F2

and possible next step - after F2 press Shift+Ctrl+Home