Jump to next non empty cell in a row or column

Although Numbers does not have a built-in keyboard shortcut to do that, you can write the operation in AppleScript, turn it into a service, and assign a keyboard shortcut to it. Here is one to that goes down a column looking for the next cell with a value in it then selects that cell.

tell application "Numbers"
	tell front document's active sheet
		tell (first table whose selection range's class is range)
			set mycol to column of first cell of selection range
			set startrow to (address of row of first cell of selection range) + 1
			set endrow to number of rows
			
			if startrow > endrow then return
			
			repeat with i from startrow to endrow
				if value of (cell i of mycol) is not missing value then
					set selection range to cell i of mycol
					return
				end if
			end repeat
		end tell
	end tell
end tell

Open the Script Editor app, paste that into a new document. Try it out by selecting a cell in Numbers then pressing the Play button in Script Editor. If it does what you want you can turn it into a Service and assign a keyboard shortcut:

1. Open Automator app
2. Make a new Quick Action
3. Set it to receive "no input" in "Numbers"
4. From the Utilities folder, drag "Run AppleScript" over to the panel on the right
5. Delete all that is in the action and paste in the new AppleScript
6. Save, giving it a name that makes sense to you like Goto Next Populated Cell in Column
7. In Numbers, click on the Numbers Menu then click on Services and you should see it there
8. While in the Services menu, click on Service Preferences and you should be at Keyboard Preferences
9. Click on "App Shortcut"
10. Make a shortcut for Numbers with the name of your new service and give it a keyboard combo. You can reassign Command down arrow to it, taking it away from what that shortcut usually does.

It is a lot of steps when it is all written out like this but it's not all that hard to do. Other scripts can be written to go upwards or sideways.

livedemo wrote:

without using filtering/formulas/etc.

I don't think that is possible.

In Numbers you would rarely need to do that anyway. In Excel you have one big expanse of cells, with areas separated by empty rows or columns. In Numbers instead of a big expanse of cells you typically work with multiple tables on the same sheet. Navigating within tables is quick and easy, command-down arrow, etc.

SG