Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Jumping to the Start of the Next Data Entry Row.

Jumping to the Start of the Next Data Entry Row

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 14, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

Do you need to always jump to the first cell right after all the data you've already put in your worksheet? For instance, if you have a worksheet that contains data in A1:G251, do you ever need to jump to cell A252 so that you can start entering data?

Moving to the first cell in row 252 is easy, provided there is data in all the cells in A1:A251. But if there can be empty cells in column A, then jumping to A252 can be a bit more difficult. In that case, you might be interested in a macro that makes jumping to the first cell of the empty row after your data quite easy:

Sub FindFirstCellNextRow()
    Dim x As Integer
    x = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count
    ActiveCell.SpecialCells(xlLastCell).Select
    ActiveCell.EntireRow.Cells(1, 1).Offset(1, 0).Activate
End Sub

The first two lines effectively recompute the "last cell" in the worksheet and then the next two lines select that cell and jump to the cell in column A that is one row down.

Assign the macro to a keyboard shortcut, and you'll always be just one keystroke away from jumping to the first truly empty row in the worksheet.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6197) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Jumping to the Start of the Next Data Entry Row.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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What is two minus 0?

2020-08-30 11:42:04

John Mann

I use the Form command, which I've added to the Home tab in Excel 2010, for quite a few of my record keeping. I've formated the data as a table, and as long as the active cell is anywhere in the table, clicking the Form command opens a dialoge box which lists all cells in which I can place data (calculated results show as a name only. The top button in the "form" is NEW, click that and I can then enter my data and it will always be in the last row of the table. When done, either click NEW again to add another record, click close.
I have noticed that some keyboard shortcuts work in the "form" (eg Ctrl+; to add todays date), while others don't (Ctrl+D, for example).
One thing to be aware of is that adding new records does NOT move the selected cell.

2020-03-16 06:08:04

David Robinson

Or you could press Ctrl + End to jump to the last cell in your spreadsheet, then press Home to go to the first column of that row, then down one.

2020-03-14 10:36:28

J. Woolley

For more on this subject, see https://excelribbon.tips.net/T011526_Finding_the_Last-Used_Cell_in_a_Macro

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