how to reposition cursor inside a cell in Numbers without a mouse

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Level 1

115 points

how to reposition cursor inside a cell in Numbers without a mouse

Hi all,
with all other Spreadsheet apps (AppleWorks included) *I knew how to move the cursor inside a cell after having navigated from cell to cell.*
In other words: I'm using the arrows to go from cell to cell. Nex I'm on a cell I want to edit. i hit (insert the keyboard shortcut here) and now the arrow keys are moving the text insertion symbol inside the cell. +The absolute no-no at this point is to have to click the cell to move the cursor inside. I want to maintain a keyboard-only use!+

With AW6 it was option-arrow. I can't believe Numbers lacks this tool, but I couldn't query the documentation in any sensible way.

Any ideas?

I've looked in the Numbers documentation without

MBP15" 2.4GHz. 4GB RAM. Aperture Lib and ref masters on external RAID., Mac OS X (10.4.10), 30" on MBP when at home

Posted on Oct 28, 2007 4:25 PM

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Answer 1

max-pol Author

Level 1

115 points

Dec 21, 2010 2:06 PM in response to Jason Milner

thanks a lot Jason!
indeed this is the closest.

option-return is almost equal to focusing the cursor in the cell (it'd perfect if nothing was selected , IMHO)

and command-return gets the focus back to navigating in cells. simply hitting return also works, but predictably moves you to the cell below.

Hope this might help other users...

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Answer 2

Dec 21, 2010 2:05 PM in response to max-pol

Found it - I was stuck on this too. I'm a "born again" mac user, so I've recently found that the return key allows you to edit a selected file name. Remembering this, I tried a few similar combinations, & eventually found it works with Alt-Return. When you do this, you're taken into edit mode with the entire cell text selected, & from there you can either delete the
lot, or move around to insert text. Hope this helps, J.

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Answer 3

Dec 21, 2010 2:05 PM in response to Ashka

{quote:title= http://www.apple.com/support/numbers/shortcuts/: }{quote}
Edit content in cell = Select cell and click once, twice, or three times
Stop editing cell and select cell = Command-Return

I tried it. The "Stop editing cell" key combiniation works for "Start editing cell" (F2 in M$ Excel).

I have to admit that I don't exactly know which of the keys is the Command-Key on a Mac's keyboard. The one which has written "alt" on the upper left corner on mine. It's the one left of the Apple-Key. It's not "fn" or "crtl". The other one. Command?

Just try a few function keys in combination with "Enter". it will work for you...

Greets!
-Gin

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Answer 4

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,819 points

Dec 21, 2010 2:05 PM in response to Gin Tonyx

Hello

The command key is the one which was named Apple or openApple in old days.

The alt one is the one which was named option or closedApple in old days.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 29 octobre 2007 12:36:34)

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Answer 5

jaxjason

Level 5

5,063 points

Dec 21, 2010 2:05 PM in response to Jason Milner

Just remember that once editing the contents of a cell. You Cannot use the arrow keys to move the cursor to a cell to select it for the equation. Its either the mouse click on a cell, or type in the reference by hand. More than once I have typed a new equation Left Arrow, and nothing happens except that the cursor now sits before the = sign.

Jason

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Answer 6

Dec 21, 2010 2:06 PM in response to max-pol

Max & Jason rule. Thanks for posting the question & solution. This seemingly minor issue was causing this Windows refugee to run Excel in Windows via Parallels on my Mac (phew!)...just so I could use the F2 key to edit cells! Apple seriously needs to update the list of "keyboard shortcuts" for Numbers: "Select cell and click once, twice, or three times" is no keyboard shortcut.

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Answer 7

Ashka

Level 4

3,891 points

Dec 21, 2010 2:04 PM in response to max-pol

Link for Numbers keyboard short cuts, hope that helps.
http://www.apple.com/support/numbers/shortcuts/

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Answer 8

Dec 21, 2010 2:05 PM in response to jaxjason

Good point - thanks Jason.

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