Excel’s Little-Known Cell Modes

Ready, Edit, Enter and Point

No matter how experienced you are with Excel, there is always something you wish you knew earlier. There’s a good chance you weren’t already aware of the different cell modes that exist in Excel. However, it’s worth being aware of them because they can save you time in certain instances.

You will see the current cell mode at the bottom-left of your Excel window.

If this is not showing, ensure that Cell Mode is ticked when you right-click on the status bar.

Ready

Ready is the default mode and indicates that Excel is waiting for user input. It will continue to appear providing you are not editing a cell, defined name, conditional formatting formula or chart range.

Ready mode

Edit

Edit mode will be activated when any of the following events occur:

• double-clicking on a non-empty cell
• clicking in the formula bar—irrespective of whether the active cell is empty or non-empty
• pressing the F2 key in the active cell