New to Excel 365 coming from Excel 2010

[Quisp]

This is embarrassing because I consider myself a better than average excel user, but, F it. Our company made the switch recently.

I use keyboard shortcuts for a lot of things.
Previously, if my cursor was for example, at address T10, and I wanted a simple sum result in T10, for cells A7:A10, I would:
Alt=
move my cursor with arrow key to A7, followed by period, moved cursor with down arrow to A10, and hit enter, and that was it.

Now with 365, assuming the same, Alt=, move with arrow key to A7, hit period key, move cursor to A10....

So, when I go down with arrow key to select my range from A7 to A10, excel automatically assumes enters the range from to be T column. Basically the range Im selecting with my arrow key is not what is being entered into the formula, not to mention, hitting period in the formula doesnt insert : in the argument anymore from prior versions?

I just want my old wife back

[TMS]

I have to be honest and say Alt= is not a shortcut that I use. That said, it works for me. However, it is with a colon ( : ) rather than period ( . )

So, Alt=, click in cell A7, type colon ( : ), click in cell A10, press Enter ... =SUM(A7:A10)

[6StringJazzer]

move my cursor with arrow key to A7, followed by period

I don't know how that ever worked. I don't think a period is correct in this context. I've never tried but it doesn't work in 365 and I don't think there has been much of a change in keyboard shortcuts. The only thing that makes sense there is a colon.

Personally when I'm building a formula like that I just drag out the range with a mouse in one sweep. You seem to be doing a lot of clicking and typing, even in the older version, to select A7:A10. I totally get that in many situations keyboard shortcuts are far faster than a series of mouse clicks, but selecting a range is not one of them.

[Quisp]

Yeah, you used to be able to hit period instead of colon, and it would insert the colon. That part isnt a big deal as I can just do colon from now on, but, why the second param of a simple SUM formula is interjecting the column Im in, rather than allowing me to arrow over and select the range, is baffling to me. I would prefer not to have to constantly move from keyboard to mouse, just to select the correct range. I figured its a setting they recent implemented but I cant find it.

[TMS]

When I press Alt=, I get =SUM(). When I click in A7, I get =SUM(A7). When I type colon, I get =SUM(A7:A7. And, when I click in A10, I get =SUM(A7:A10). Then I press Enter to complete.

OK, now that assumes there is nothing above the cell where I put the SUM. But, if there is something above that cell, the shortcut assumes you want to SUM the cells above it. Just like AutoSum does.

[Gregb11]

After hitting Alt= and moving the cursor over, instead of colon or period, can't you just press the SHIFT key and move the cursor to where you want.

[TMS]

@Greg: pretty sure you can (on iPad at the moment) but that was not the issue described and discussed.

[Gregb11]

@TMS: Then I'm confused. I can do what I stated, and I think it matches what the OP describes. If I follow his instructions

"Previously, if my cursor was for example, at address T10, and I wanted a simple sum result in T10, for cells A7:A10, I would:
Alt=
move my cursor with arrow key to A7, followed by period Instead of typing a period, hold the SHIFT key down, moved cursor with down arrow to A10, and hit enter, and that was it."


The above (using shift instead of period), works on my Windows laptop running 365.