Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Selecting Individual Cells in a Table.
There are times when you will want to apply formatting to individual cells in a table, or you may need to perform some other action that requires selecting cells first. There are a couple of ways you can select a cell. If you are using the mouse, you can select a cell by moving the mouse pointer just to the left of the cell itself. The mouse pointer should point up and to the right. When you click on the mouse button, the entire cell should be selected.
Another way to select cells is to simply select the end-of-cell marker at the end of any text in the cell. This is especially easy if you are using the keyboard. All you need to do is make sure the insertion pointer is at the very end of your text (in the cell), and then hold down the Shift key as you press the Right Arrow key. The result is that the entire cell is selected.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1284) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Selecting Individual Cells in a Table.
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2020-05-11 08:14:35
Shabbir
Thank you. This was very helpful.
2019-02-02 02:48:40
Avnish Singh
One need to press ....... Key to move forward in a sequence from one cell to other cell in ms word table
1~ enter
2~ tab
3~shift
4~spacebar
2017-10-26 15:01:06
Andrea
Thanks. Easy Peasy. I was trying to get the heavy black arrow to appear but I kept getting the table boundaries. Frustrating
2017-01-04 11:10:53
TJ
Exactly what I needed. Thanks!
2015-05-14 16:15:04
Will
Thank You!
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: 
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