Excel keyboard shortcut to edit formula in formula bar

Question

When I press F2 in a cell I can edit it inside the cell. However often it's just more convenient to make the edit in the formula bar.

I can switch to formula bar by mouse, just wondering whether there is a keyboard shortcut for that?

when editing in formula bar, highlights are applied there and also cursor blinks there:

Answer 1

In the Excel options menu, turn off the option Allow editing directly in cells. Now when you press F2, you'll always be editing in the Formula bar.

I don't believe there's a keyboard-based solution to this.

Answer 2

If you do not want to disable editing directly in cells, there's this long workaround:

If the cell is empty, it's easy: Press F2, then Ctrl+A.

Unfortunately, that shortcut only works if the cell is empty. If the cell is not empty, you must first clear the contents. So you could use this key sequence: Del, then F2, then Ctrl+A.

But assuming you want to retain the original formula, you'd have to copy and paste it.

Thus, if the cell is not empty, this key sequence does the job:

1. F2 (modify the cell in place)
2. Ctrl+A (select the formula)
3. Ctrl+X (cut the formula to clipboard)
4. Ctrl+A (jump to formula bar)
5. Backspace (remove equal sign, since it is already on the clipboard)
6. Ctrl+V (paste original content)

Note that steps 2-4 can be reduced to a single step: Ctrl+A,X,A.

Answer 3

You can use CTRL+F2 to do this!

Answer 4

There is unfortunately no way to do this in Excel 365, as discussed here.

Will update this answer if this feature arrives.