exit out of a cell without moving to another

**Xx7** · 04-05-2011, 09:37 PM

Simple question: Would like to enter text in a cell and then bold it... Do i HAVE TO enter text and then move to another cell and go back to bold it?? Or is there a keyboard shortcut (similar to F2) where I can enter text and then press it and it will go out of cell edit mode, then I can bold the text without moving to another cell. thx

**MarvinP** · 04-05-2011, 11:02 PM

Hi,

I think the answer is - you really haven't entered the text until you press Enter. When you press enter you move to the next cell. (you can change this to down or right in the options).

How about this.... Click on a Column Head or Row Number and Bold the entire Column or Row before entering text.

Does that work for you?

**Marcol** · 04-06-2011, 12:39 AM

While you are in the cell, highlight all, or part of the string, and press the bold button in the Home tab.
You can format all or part of the string, Colour/Size/Font etc. this way.

**Xx7** · 04-06-2011, 02:22 PM

Thanks for the responses. Is there any shortcut key to select all the text in a cell when you are in "cell edit" mode?

**Marcol** · 04-06-2011, 02:40 PM

The answer to that is I don't know.

I posted a workbook here in Post #2
http://www.excelforum.com/excel-gene...for-excel.html

This lists all available Keyboard Shortcuts, download the file for future reference.

**Cutter** · 04-06-2011, 02:58 PM

If you hit F2 while on a cell to enter Cell Edit Mode the cursor will be at the right end.
Hit Shift+Home.

**MarvinP** · 04-06-2011, 03:42 PM

So here is what I've learned from this thread.

If you don't want to press enter to finish putting a string into a cell before you change the attributes of the string. You can select the text (not entered yet) with your mouse to change the font or attribute.

This was not acceptable

So you can then click enter and then reselect the cell, press F2 to get into the edit mode where you can then press Shift+Home to select the whole string to then change the attribute. I think this wasn't a possible answer as you needed to press enter to end the edit mode.

My ending thought is WHY? To simplify data entry? To change text attributes in an easier fashion? Why isn't pressing Enter and then going back to the cell a good solution. It seems all the other solutions are at least as dificult to do.

**romperstomper** · 04-06-2011, 03:45 PM

As soon as you enter edit mode, press Ctrl+b then type the text you want.

**ChemistB** · 04-06-2011, 04:29 PM

Or, use CNTRL ENTER to exit the edit mode without leaving the cell. (Although I'm with MarvinP here).

**Cutter** · 04-06-2011, 07:18 PM

Or you can stay in the cell with just Enter if you take the check mark out of the box beside "After pressing Enter, move selection" in the Excel Options - Advanced - Editing Options.

**MarvinP** · 04-06-2011, 07:35 PM

I wonder when Xx7 will check back in and give us more requirements.
@Cutter - I never knew you could stay in that cell!

! Great!!

Now why would I want to?

**Cutter** · 04-06-2011, 07:59 PM

I have a lot of experience making people stay in their cells!

**ChemistB** · 04-07-2011, 09:18 AM

LOL, Great thread.

**MarvinP** · 04-07-2011, 11:29 AM

I too LOL in reading Cutter's post. I have to agree that I learned more shortcut keys in this one question than I've learned in a month.

I want to create a new achronym now that says something like "It Doesn't Work Like That". Lets see IDWLT and give it as an answer to questions like this one. Best of all, when I look for IDWLT in the achronym dictionary it asks if I didn't really mean "idiot"! I got another LOL moment out of my search.