How do I edit a cell without using the mouse?

[Jim Cutler]

I want to edit a cell without using a mouse. The behavior I'm looking for is
common in other apps. For instance, in IE if you hit Alt+D the address bar
is activated and the text in it is reverse highlighted. At that point if you
type a character, the whole value is deleted and just that character remains.
However, if you hit the End, Home, or cursor left/right keys while the text
is reverse highlighted, then the text is unhighlighted and if you type a
character, then the character is inserted at the cursor. I can unhighlight
the text by clicking in the cell with the mouse. How do I do it with the
keyboard?

 

[BruceM]

You mention cells, which makes me wonder if you meant to post in an Excel
group, as Access does not have cells. This group is for discussions about
Microsoft Access, a relational database program. The web interface may have
misdirected you here.

 

[Jim Cutler]

No, I am definitely talking about Access. By "cell" I mean the value at the
intersection of a particular column in a particular row of a table. For
instance if I have a table "Addresses" with text columns Name, Address, and
City. When I open the Addresses table in the Access GUI, I want be be able
to change the value of Address for the row with Name='Jim'.

I figure this has to be possible. Blind people can't use a mouse and
Microsoft is really big on making their apps work for blind people.

 

[BruceM]

You would not have been the frist person to post in this group by mistake.
You used the term "cell" and didn't mention Access, which led me to wonder
if you meant to ask about Excel rather than Access.

You should be using a form rather than a table for data entry. A datasheet
view of a form looks very much like a table, if that is the intention.

In any case, you should be able to get the desired behavior by going to
Tools >> Options >> Keyboard tab. Select "Go to start of field" for
"Behavior entering field". This applies to Access 2003, and probably to
2002 and 2000 as well. Don't know about Access 97. In Access 2007 the
route to the selection will be different, but I don't have Access 2007 on
this computer.
..

 

[Jim Cutler]

Hit F2 to show the insertion point. This will unselect the data and move the
cursor do the end of the data.

 

[Jim Cutler]

Hit F2 to show the insertion point. This will unselect the data and move the
cursor do the end of the data.