How to Jump to Specific Cell or Range in Google Sheets?

Watch Video – Jump to Specific Cell/Range in Google Sheets

As you start working with more data in Google Sheets, you may feel a need to have a quick way to jump to a specific cell or a range.

For example, you may want to quickly refer to a specific cell that has some relevant value or a specific row/column.

Fortunately, there are a few neat ways that allow you to do just that,

In this tutorial, I will show you two simple ways to quickly jump to a specific cell in Google Sheets (or jump to a specific range, row or column).

So let’s get started!

Jump to Cells Using the ‘Go To Range’ Option

In Google Sheets, there is a way to simply type the cell reference (or the range reference or row/column number) and quickly jump to it.

This can be done using the ‘Go To Range’ feature in Google Sheets.

But the issue is that you will not be able to find it anywhere in the existing options.

Let me show you two ways to get the ‘Go To Range’ option and then use it to jump to any cell/range in Google Sheets.

Using Help to Find ‘Go To Range’

Let’s say you want to quickly go to cell A1 in Google Sheets.

Below are the steps to get the ‘Go To Range’ search box and jump to cell A1:

  1. Open the Google Sheets document
  2. Click on the Help option in the menuClick on the Help Option in the menu
  3. In the search bar that appears, type – ‘Go To Range’.
  4. Click on the Go To Range option. This will open the Go to search box at the top-right part of the Google Sheets worksheet.Type to Go To in the field and then click on Go To Range option
  5. In the search box, enter A1Click A1 in the Go To Range search box
  6. Hit the Enter key.

The above steps would take you to cell instantly.

You can also use the same steps to jump to any specific range or row/column.

Below are the examples of what you should enter in each case.

  • To jump to a specific range (let’s say A1:A100), enter A:A100 in the search box
  • To jump to a specific row (let’s say the second row), enter 2:2 in the search box
  • To jump to a specific column (let’s say the B column), enter B:B in the search box

You can also create a named range and then jump to that named range by typing the name in the Go To search box. For example, if you have created a defined named range with the name Data, simply enter Data in the search box and hit enter.

Using Keyboard Shortcut (F5)

The shortcut to open the Go To search box in Google Sheets is F5.

But if you use this shortcut, it will simply refresh the worksheet.

To make sure it opens the ‘Go To range’ search box, you need to first enable the compatible spreadsheets shortcuts.

Below are the steps to enable compatible shortcuts:

  1. Open the Google Sheets document
  2. Click on the Help option in the menuClick on the Help Option in the menu
  3. Click on Keyboard ShortcutsClick on Keyboard Shortcuts
  4. In the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box, enable the ‘Enable compatible spreadsheet shortcuts’ optionCheck the enbale compatiblity spreadsheet shortcuts

Now if you want to jump to a specific cell or row/column, simply hit the F5 key.

This will show the ‘Go To range’ search box, and you can enter the cell reference (range reference here)

Note: When you enable compatible spreadsheet shortcuts, you may be able to use some of the keyboard shortcuts that are also available in other popular spreadsheet tools such as MS Excel.

Creating Links to Jump to Cell/Range in the Same Sheet

You can also create links to a specific cell or range (even entire row or column).

This is useful when you want to give the user the ability to click on a text string in a cell and jump to a specific cell or range. You can also use the same method to create the Table of Contents links.

Here is a step-by-step process to create a link and jump to specific cells:

  1. Select the cell where you want insert the link
  2. Right-click on the cell
  3. Click on Insert Link (you you can use the keyboard shortcut Control + K)Right click and then click on Insert Link
  4. In the dialog box that opens, enter the text that you want to show in the cellWrite text that you want in the cell
  5. Click on the Link field. You will notice that it shows a few options. You can link to any sheet in the document, any named ranges, or to a specific cell/range.
  6. Click on ‘Select a range of cells to link’.Click on Select a range of cells to link option
  7. Enter the cell reference or the range reference.Enter the cell address to which you want to jump to when clicked
  8. Click OK.

The above steps would add the specified text in the cell you selected and when you click on it, it will jump to the cell/range you mentioned in Step 7.

Creating Links to Jump to Cell/Range in the Other Sheet

The above two methods will allow you to jump to a cell or range in the same sheet.

But what if you want to jump to a specific cell/range in some other sheet.

You can do that as well (quite easily).

Suppose you have two sheets – Sheet1 and Sheet2, and you want to jump to cell A1 in Sheet2, when you’re in Sheet1.

You can create a link in a cell, and when you click on that link, it will take you to cell A1 in Sheet2.

Below are the steps to click and jump to a cell/range in another sheet in Google Sheets:

  1. Open Sheet2 (i.e, the sheet where you want to come)
  2. Select the cell/range to which you want to jump to (when you’re in Sheet1)
  3. Right-click and then click on ‘Get link to this cell/range’ option. This will copy the link to cell/range in the clipboard
  4. Go to Sheet1 and select the cell where you want to create the hyperlink. This would be the link that, when clicked, will take to cell A1 in Sheet2
  5. Right-click and the click on Insert Link (or use the keyboard shortcut Control + K)
  6. In the dialog box that opens, paste the link and enter the text that you want to appear in cell.Enter link to the cell or range to which you want to jump to
  7. Click on Apply

That’s it!

Now when you click on the cell in Sheet1 (where you added in the link in Step 5 and 6), it will take you to cell A1 in Sheet2.

Hope you found this Google Sheets tutorial useful.

You may also like the following Google Sheets tutorials:

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Sumit

Sumit

Sumit is a Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel Expert. He provides spreadsheet training to corporates and has been awarded the prestigious Excel MVP award by Microsoft for his contributions in sharing his Excel knowledge and helping people.

11 thoughts on “How to Jump to Specific Cell or Range in Google Sheets?”

  1. Thanks a ton!!!! You have been of great help. Very good video, to the point, well explained, enough examples. Thank you!

    Reply
  2. Is there any way to link to a named cell or range that sticks if rows are added above the target cell/range? It seems there is a way in excel but have had no luck in sheets.

    Reply
  3. For me I need to create a link to a cell or cell range for the active sheet, so that if I copy the sheet the link will be valid for both the original sheet and new/duplicate sheet.

    I cannot find a way to reference a cell that will be valid for the active sheet only, as no matter what I do the link contains the sheet name, so when I copy the sheet, the new sheet still links back to cell ranges from the old sheet. Is there a way just to have your link take you to cell A2 of current sheet and not have it hard-coded to Sheet1!A2 even if I copy it and it becomes Sheet2?

    Reply
  4. Hello!

    Thank you for the tips.
    I use Google Sheets to make dynamic documents and export them as PDF.
    I want to make a “Table of Contents” and make the Articles clickable links to jump to the clicked page/article.
    How can I do that?
    For now, if I make a hyperlink it jumps there but if I export the sheet as a document, from the exported PDF the links are referring to the sheet itself, not the PDF at the choosed topic. It is quite obvious it does this, since I got the link of the cell that contains the topic.

    Thank you in advance!

    Reply

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