Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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: Picking a Group of Cells.
Excel allows you to define a group of cells in preparation for doing an action, such as formatting the cells. This is different than picking a range of cells, however. A range of cells is contiguous in nature—every cell between a starting and ending point is selected. A group of cells does not need to be contiguous. Instead, they can be anywhere on the worksheet.
In some Microsoft documentation, a group of cells is called a selection set. To put together your own group of cells, you need to use the mouse. Click on the first cell in the group. As you click on each subsequent cell in the group, simply hold down the Ctrl key. Each cell you click on is added to the group. If you click on a cell a second time (with the Ctrl key pressed), the cell is removed from the group. If you click on any cell without holding down the Ctrl key, that cell is selected and the selection set is gone.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12362) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Picking a Group of Cells.
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2021-08-27 07:57:43
Billy Thomas
"Shift F8" does the same thing? "Add or Remove Selection" will appear on the left side of the status bar. "Shift F8" will toggle the setting on/off.
F8 alone will toggle the "Extend Selection" setting on/off.
2017-04-26 05:43:04
Nice Tip. I have done this in VBA but not in a spreadsheet.
An interesting use of this :- for cells in the same row or rows, or in the same column or columns -
You can copy ( Ctrl+c) the multicell sel ection .
If you then paste ( Ctrl+v ), the output is compressed.
So it is a nice way, for example, to go down a long list sel ecting the cells with information you want. Copy the multicell sel ection, then paste that sel ection and you get a list just of the cells you sel ected. This is a neat trick in VBA, but possibly someone could use it to good effect manually to quickly compile a short list from a larger list
Alan
2017-03-24 12:03:12
Willy Vanhaelen
" If you click on a cell a second time (with the Ctrl key pressed), the cell is removed from the group." doesn't work in Excel.
If you want to do this you can use a macro as in https://excelribbon.tips.net/T012457_Removing_Cells_from_a_Selected_Range.html
or
https://excel.tips.net/T003102_Removing_Cells_from_a_Selected_Range
2017-03-23 09:26:18
Brian
I use Excel 2010. Selecting multiple cells using the CTRL key works just fine, but deselecting a cell the same way has never worked for me. One 'oops' and it's start all over.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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: 
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