Excel: After pressing Enter, move selection …

Some people may be aware of this, but in Excel you can change the default behavior of the Enter key. By default, when you hit Enter it will move one cell down. In Excel 2007 this setting is found in Office button > Excel Options > Advanced, and it allows you to select from Up, Down, Right, and Left.

Changing this setting is not necessary, however, as you can achieve all four directions with the default setting.

• Down, this is the default behavior
• Up, Shift-Enter
• Right, Tab
• Left, Shift-Tab

There are two more Enter-based keystrokes that come in handy from time to time.

• Ctrl-Enter saves the cell data, and keeps that as the currently selected cell (read: does not move in any direction)
• Alt-Enter will give you a new line (LFCR) within the same cell