Move the Cursor and Select a Portion of an Expression

Move the Cursor and Select a Portion of an Expression

Moving and positioning the cursor in the formula editor can be tricky. Here are some tips for getting what you want to happen.

•Generally you can click the mouse where you want to position the cursor, but when that fails, try the right- and left-arrow keys either on the formula editor keypad or on your computer keyboard.

•If you are inside a parenthetical expression, typing a right parenthesis, ), will move the cursor to the right and outside of that expression.

•If you are inside a quoted expression (a string), typing a double quote will move the cursor to the right and outside the quoted expression.

•Pressing the Tab key will select the next portion of the expression. It's particularly helpful when you have if- or switch statements and you want to get to the next section.

•The up-arrow keys on the keypad and the computer keyboard will select the next largest portion of the expression starting from the current selection. (For example, pressing the up-arrow key several times will generally select the entire expression.)

•The down-arrow keys on the keypad and the computer keyboard will select the next smallest portion of the expression. (This is less useful than the up-arrow key, because it is hard to predict which smaller expression will be selected.)