(Part 1 of 3) How to select Ranges

This is an important topic… because it shows you how to refer to cells and ranges. These are critical building blocks in Excel.

In this lesson we learn:

• How to select one cell using the command Cells (row, col).Select
• How to remember Row first and Column second (ways to remember include RC = “Radio Control” or “Rubik’s Cube”)
• How to select a range of cells using Range (“A1”).Select or Range(“A1:A10”)
• How to select a more complex range

Note: In this lesson we select ranges to highlight them in Excel. But you don’t need to select a cell or range before you perform actions on it. In the next few lessons we’ll see how to do actions on ranges without selecting them.

Cells vs Ranges

When you use the Range property of a worksheet, Excel returns a Range object. And when you use the Cells property of a worksheet, Excel returns a Range object. Basically there is no such thing as a “Cell” object in Excel. It’s all considered a Range object (even if it’s a single cell).

Don’t let this confuse you… just think of the worksheet property Cells (row, col) as returning a single cell range and the worksheet property Range (“A1”) or Range (“A1:A10”) as returning a range that can be one or more cells.

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