How to Enter Data in Excel Worksheet

Enter data manually in worksheet cells

You can enter numbers (with or without fixed decimal points), text, dates, or times in one cell, in several cells at once, or on more than one worksheet. However, when a worksheet is protected by you or someone else to prevent data from being changed accidentally, you may be able to select cells to view the data, but you won't be able to type information in cells that are locked. In most cases, a protected worksheet should not be unprotected unless you have permission to do so from the person who created it.

To Enter numbers or text

1. On the worksheet, click a cell.
2. Type the numbers or text that you want, and then press ENTER or TAB.
3. To start entering data on a new line within a cell, enter a line break by pressing ALT+ENTER.

By default, pressing ENTER moves the selection down one cell, and pressing TAB moves the selection one cell to the right. You cannot change the direction of movement for the TAB key, but you can specify a different direction for the ENTER key.

How to Change the Direction for the ENTER key

1. Click the MS Office Button or File, and then click Excel Options.
2. In the Advanced category, under Edit, select the After pressing Enter, move selection check box.
3. Then click the direction that you want in the Direction box.
4. Click Ok.

NOTE: A cell may display ##### when it contains data that has a number format that is wider than the column width, or the contents may simply be truncated. To see all text, you must increase the width of the column. You can display multiple lines of text inside a cell by wrapping the text. (more details on formatting worksheet with be in subsequent posts). In order to expand the width of column to accommodate the longest entry; use the mouse to double-click the right border of the column heading.

How to Enter Dates or Times In Microsoft Excel

On the worksheet, click a cell, type a date or time as follows:

1. For a date, use a forward slash or a hyphen to separate the parts of a date; for example, type 9/5/2002 or 5-Sep-2002.
2. To enter the current date, press CTRL+; (CTRL+semicolon).
3. For a time that is based on the 12-hour clock, type a space, and then type a or p after the time; for example, 9:00 p. Otherwise, Excel enters the time as AM.
4. To enter the current time, press CTRL+SHIFT+; (CTRL+SHIFT+semicolon).
5. To enter a date or time that stays current when you reopen a worksheet, you can use the TODAY and NOW functions for instance type =Today() or type =Now() and press ENTER.
6. If you want to use the default date or time format, click the cell that contains the date or time, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+# or CTRL+SHIFT+@.