Shortcut key to "enter" a cell?

keraunoscopia wrote:
In Excel, I would hit F2 to enter the cell (the cursor appears in the text bar at the top of the screen). I could then edit the information (without this shortcut, I would have to either retype all the text or use the mouse to click into the text... this slows me down some).

Double click on the cell.
Or click the cell to select it, then press option-return.

The insertion point will appear in the cell rather than in the formula bar at the top of the window, but you will be able to edit the cell.

Unfortunately, Macs don't let us search the help document that pops up, so I skimmed the shortcut key help page and didn't see anything matching what I'm looking for.

Which Help document? All Help documents using the Help viewer include a search field in the tool bar. Entering '*edit cell*' (without the quotes) into the search field of Numbers '09 Help (in Numbers go Help > Numbers Help OR press command-?) brings up a number of hits, including (at the top of the list), "Adding and Editing Formulas Using the Formula Editor". Double click that link to get to the page that starts with this information:

Here are ways to work with the Formula Editor:
• To open the Formula Editor, do one of the following:

• Select a table cell and then type the equal sign (=).

• *Double-click a table cell* that contains a formula.

• Select a table cell, click Function in the toolbar, and then choose Formula Editor from the pop-up menu.

• Select a table cell and then choose Insert > Function > Formula Editor.

• *Select a cell* that contains a formula , and then press Option-Return.

Although it's not clearly stated, the two in bold do work on empty cells or cells containing data rather than formulas, although they do not open the Formula Edtior.

I've sent feedback on the lack of an explicit statement regarding editing cells containing data, and one the missing links on the Keyboard Shortcuts page of Numbers '09 Help. You should probably do the same, using the "send feedback" links at the bottom of those Help pages.

Regards,
Barry

keraunoscopia wrote:
Option-Enter is what I was looking for. I avoid the mouse if I can help it. Thank you!

Note (for future reference) that there is a difference on the Mac keyboard between the Return key (which also carries an "enter" label) and the "Enter" key (found on the Number Pad on full size keyboards and below the embedded Number Pad on a 'Book keyboard). In many cases, but not all, you can get the same result using either of these keys.

As for the help search:

(I'm using Numbers '08) I'll go to the help menu (Cmd-?) and select "Keyboard Shortcuts." Once that help document appears, I can "ask a question," but I cannot search that specific page. Maybe in '09 it's different? I was not able to pull up the same language that you pasted above.

I had forgotten which forum I was in, and searched Numbers '09 Help. Numbers Help (for N '08) appears not to mention this shortcut.

I searched the PDF file for "option-" which gave me 18 hits, 11 of which were "option-return", but all of these dealt with entering a return character in a place where return was an action key.

I suspect there are more items in the iWork '09 guides that should be in the '08 version, but got missed.

Regards,
Barry

iWork '08 is delivered with a well done PDF *iWork User Guide* which is searchable as every PDFs.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 16 novembre 2009 13:32:02