How to select used cells and range in Excel quickly?

This article focuses on how to select used cells with content and select used ranges in active worksheet quickly in Microsoft Excel.

Select used cells with content in active worksheet with Find command

Select used range in active worksheet with shortcut keyboards

Select used cells and ranges in active worksheet with VBA

Select all non-blank cells in the active worksheet with Kutools for Excel

Select used cells with content in active worksheet with Find command

Sometimes you may want to find out and select all used cells with content in active worksheet, but not blank cells. You can do it with following steps:

Step 1: Click Home > Find & Select > Find to open the Find and Replace dialog box. You can also open this Find and Replace dialog box with pressing the Ctrl + F keys together.

Step 2: In the Find What: box, enter the * symbol, and click the Find All button.

Step 3: Now there are numerous searching results are listed at the bottom of this dialog box. Press the Ctrl + A keys to select all searching results.

Now all cells with content in active worksheet are selected at once. See the following screenshot:

Select used range in active worksheet with shortcut keyboards

You can select used ranges in active worksheet with shortcut keyboards quickly. Just select the first Cell A1 in active worksheet, and press the Ctrl + Shift + End keys together, then it will select the used range at once.

Select used cells and ranges in active worksheet with VBA

VB macro can help you select used cells and ranges in active worksheet quickly too.

Step 1: Hold down the ALT + F11 keys, and it opens the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

Step 2: Click Insert > Module, and paste the following macro in the Module Window.

Sub SelectActualUsedRange()
Dim FirstCell As Range, LastCell As Range
Set LastCell = Cells(Cells.Find(What:="*", SearchOrder:=xlRows, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, LookIn:=xlValues).Row, _
Cells.Find(What:="*", SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, LookIn:=xlValues).Column)
Set FirstCell = Cells(Cells.Find(What:="*", After:=LastCell, SearchOrder:=xlRows, _
SearchDirection:=xlNext, LookIn:=xlValues).Row, _
Cells.Find(What:="*", After:=LastCell, SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, _
SearchDirection:=xlNext, LookIn:=xlValues).Column)
Range(FirstCell, LastCell).Select
End Sub

Step 3: Press the F5 key to run this macro. Then it selects used range in active worksheet immediately.

Select all non-blank cells in the active worksheet with Kutools for Excel

If you have Kutools for Excel installed, you can quickly select all non-blank cells in the active worksheet with one click.

1. Click at the top left hand corner triangle  to select the whole worksheet(or you can press Ctrl + A keys to select whole worksheet), see screenshot:

2. Click Kutools > Select > Select Nonblank Cells. See screenshot:

Now a dialog pops out to remine you the number of selected non-blank cells, and at the same time, all the non-empty cells are selected.

Tip. If you want to have a free trial of the Select Nonblank Cells function, please go to free download Kutools for Excel first, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.