You could use

Ctrl-G enter

or more completely

Ctrl-G enter esc

True, though that's a tad more typing, and won't let me select a range of cells such as A1:A100.

Why doesn't it allow you to select a range such as A1:A100?

In the current cell indicator area I can type "A1:A100" to select those cells.  In the Go To dialog, however, I can only type a single cell, not a range.  Perhaps you consider that a bug - if so, it deserves a separate bug ticket.  If it's not a bug, then I need to use the current cell indicator to enter a range, which is one more reason I'd like a shortcut that takes me there.

In the go to dialog you can enter the top left cell plus the number of rows and columns. Can't you. It is usually easier to ask for 23 columns then to figure out column names.

True, though to select A1:A50 via the keyboard using that dialog I must type:

Ctrl+G A1 Tab Tab Delete 50 Shift+Tab Enter

If I had a keyboard shortcut that jumped to the current cell indicator I could type:

<shortcut> A1:A50 Enter

That feels easier to me.  In any case, it's not hard to add a shortcut and it doesn't harm anyone who doesn't want to use it!  :)

I think we are talking about different things. 

For me the current cell indicator is the emphasized border around the current cell. I though you would want to have the pane scroll to that position. I believe you are talking about something else.

I'm referring to the entity with that name in the Gnumeric documentation:

http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/doc/data-entry.shtml

Created attachment 245419 [details] [review]
non-functional patch

There attached patch should define shift-ctrl-g to focus on the cell indicator, but it doesn't. It seems that something is stealing the focus immediately after it is set. I have no idea what is wrong with this.

The problem with this patch seems to be that we have "swapped_object_signal::post_activate", G_CALLBACK (cb_post_activate)
and in cb_post_activate:
static void
cb_post_activate (WBCGtk *wbcg)
{
	if (!wbcg_is_editing (wbcg))
		wbcg_focus_cur_scg (wbcg);
}

So after every command we apparently ensure that the focus is again on the sheet.

Created attachment 245421 [details] [review]
proposed patch

This is a proposed patch. Essentially it creates an action tied to shift-ctrl-g to focus on the current cell indicator. I chose shift-ctrl-g since ctrl-g open the goto cell dialog.

This problem has been fixed in the development version. The fix will be available in the next major software release. Thank you for your bug report.