Concepts

Why does the cursor keep changing?

When the cursor is placed over certain areas of the document it changes functions. For example, when the cursor is over the title bar you can click and hold the left mouse button to move the window. When the cursor is over the work area of the spreadsheet you can click the left mouse button to select the current cell.

As you move the cursor around the spreadsheet window the cursor changes shape to indicate what behavior is enabled. When editing a spreadsheet there are four new possible cursor shapes:

1. Adjust – used to adjust the width of a column or the height of a row
2. Workarea mouse pointer – used to select the current cell
3. Move – used to move the contents of one or more cells. (Note that as the cursor is moved the current position of the cursor is displayed–B4 in the image shown here.)
4. Fill – used to fill right or fill down.

The following avi movie shows each of these cursor shapes being used while working with a spreadsheet.