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General discussion

Excel - Stuck in a cell

Jun 29, 2005 7:21AM PDT

Excel acts like I have the shift key down when I move to another cell. When I'm working in excel and I select a cell, I can't move to another cell to enter data -- the cursor just shades the cells. I also can't close the program without going to the Task manager and ending it.

This problem occurs irratically. I can be working in a file and have no problems. Then the same file may start having the problem described above. When I try to open another excel file, the same problem occurs. I have not been able to identify a pattern to this problem. I have tried a restart and it doesn't resolve itself. But later, I may be able to work in the file with no problems.

I am running excel using Windows XP on a Dell Inspiron 4000.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Discussion is locked

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If all else fails,
Jun 30, 2005 5:56AM PDT

and if no-one else has any better ideas, get your Office CD handy, delete Excel from Add/Remove programs and re-install it.

Just make sure you haven't stored any workbooks in any of the Excel or Office folders, and when you have re-installed, make sure you check for any Office updates again.

It's easy enough with Office. Microsoft have made adding and removing components relatively pain free.

Good luck

Mark

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And even Mark's idea ...
Jun 30, 2005 6:15AM PDT

is not guaranteed to help.

It could be some hardware problem (and you'll only know for sure after going back to Dell's restore cd).
It could be a setting (although I shouldn't know which one) that might be retained in the uninstall.
It could be a quirk in the .xlb-file (mine for Excel 97 and Windows 95 is in c:\windows) - try what happens if you rename that. The .xlb file is more or less comparable to normal.dot in Word. Read about it in swisse's posts in http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6129-0.html?forumID=29&threadID=42310&messageID=496132


Kees

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Excel - Stuck in a cell
Jun 30, 2005 10:59PM PDT

I've had the same problem with my Dell Latitude D600. The way I've found to resolve it sounds silly, but it works. Somehow, the touchpad mouse buttons get stuck in Excel. If you click the left button repeatedly, it will eventually let go of the cell.

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I did fixed as per your advice
Jun 10, 2014 6:52PM PDT

Cheers. It works through button located on touchpad. use the left click on a empty cell in the same sheet. The lock of cells just disappears.

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F8 and Touchpad settings
Jul 1, 2005 12:54AM PDT

Somethings to check before doing a reinstall of Excel or a system restore.

While Excel is stuck selecting cells look in the status line to see if EXT is displayed. If it is you are in extend mode where moving the mouse selects cells. The F8 key toggles this on and off.

If you did not press the F8 key and are using a touchpad then check the touchpad settings. On mine I have a utility that is used to define different actions if tapping in the corners. Could be one of these setting is causing the problem when you accidently tap in that area. As I do not have a Dell I can only suggest reading the documentation on the touchpad to see if you have a function like this that causes the problem in Excel.

While checking the touchpad settings also check its sensitivity. Mine was so sensitive when I first got it that simply placing my finger in one of these touchpad hotspots was interpreted as a double click and I had similar cell selection behavior you are experiencing while using Excel.

Finally if stuck in cell selection try the ESC key to see if that cancels the cell selection. If it does then Excel thinks you are in the middle of an action and won't let you do other actions until you complete this one. This is often seen in copy and paste if you don't use the enter key to paste but use edit - paste or ctrl-v then Excel think you want to continue pasting the contents and the marching ants around the copied cells don't go away until you press ESC.

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External keyboard and or mouse
Jul 1, 2005 3:17AM PDT

Try using a external keyboard and or mouse, see if the problem stops, if so at least you will know what part may be causing the lock up. No change would mean it?s more then likely related to a software issue.

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Solved my problem
Jul 1, 2005 5:18AM PDT

I encountered this problem on an IBM desktop at my office. I found that the scroll lock key had accidentally been hit by the person using the computer. Once the scroll lock key was turned off, Excel went back to normal. Simple answer, but in my case, it worked! Good luck!

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Scroll Lock was the Problem - Excel Stuck in a Cell
Jun 15, 2007 2:22PM PDT

Thank you, this one has been driving me crazy! Yes when it was stuck you can tab and shift-tab around but nothing beats using the arrow keys for moving around in a worksheet. Thanks!!

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Scroll Lock and being Stuck in a Cell
Jun 15, 2007 2:38PM PDT

Just to be clear the symptom I was seeing was:

The arrow keys move the spreadsheet but the selected cell is frozen. You can tab or shift+tab to move the selected cell, or mouse click to a new one, but you can't simply arrow around.

I sometimes use the Print Screen key on the keyboard, and accidentally hit Scroll Lock next to it on occasion.

In 20 years of working with computers I have never known what Scroll Lock was for, or that any applications supported it. Leave it to Excel to do so. Thanks again for your post!!!!

This one was driving me crazzzy. I had suspected the problem was related to Freeze Panes but I was wrong.

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lolzzzzz
Oct 22, 2011 7:08PM PDT

IN MY 10 YEARS of IT field today i comes to know whts dis scroll button is for lolzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz soo informative ... thnx buddy....i was stuck in a cell and just search for it.. otherwise i was going to reset my excel hahahaha............................so informative and crazy thing scroll lock..

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Great !!!
Nov 25, 2011 8:50PM PST

I had the same issue, and what you suggested defiantly solved it !!!
Thank you very much !!!!!

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Excel - Stuck in a cell
Aug 11, 2005 8:20AM PDT

Did you ever find a fix to this?

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Had the same problem, but not on a laptop
Nov 21, 2006 2:52AM PST

This problem has come and gone for months and I finally decided I'd had enough and would figure it out. I found this thread and it gave me some ideas to try. The part about the touchpad was crucial.

The problem surfaced months ago when I installed Pocket PC software. The mouse would lock in an Excel cell or tab, and I could not do anything by call up task manager and kill Excel.

This unit is a Dell GX-280 and the problem was in Excel 2003. I wiped out office and reloaded it without fixing the problem. The problem was intermittent and only happened (can you guess?) when I really needed Excel.

SOLUTION: The mouse is an optical Dell with a scroll wheel. When the cell locked by a left mouse click, a click on the scroll wheel corrected the problem. YEAH!! No more <Ctrl> <Alt> + <Del>. The fact this exact problem was happening on touchpad equipped units is what clued me into the scroll wheel.

Thanks and I hope this hint helps others with standard PC and mice get past this frustrating problem.

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Thanks for the solution
Jan 4, 2007 2:27AM PST

I really needed the solution today... as I had other back-end processes going and no time to restart the machine.

"When the cell locked by a left mouse click, a click on the scroll wheel corrected the problem."

It worked like charm! Thanks again for posting the solution!

-R.

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EXCEL MOUSE SELECT LOCK SOLUTION!!!
Mar 28, 2008 2:10AM PDT

Thanks to hsega!

Had the same problem today and googled for about an hour w/ the same results... no change. Tried Scroll Lock, Click Lock, F8, hitting random keys (Alt, Windows, Ctrl, etc.) nothing worked until...

I just hit the scroll wheel down once and BAM! Problem solved.

Go out and spread the word.

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Mouse is stuck on a Dell Latitude-infrequent but aggravating
Nov 26, 2006 8:12AM PST

Tried the F8.

Tried the Shift key.

No scroll lock shows.

Nothing is helpful.

Left click/right click/left/left/left/left/left/left/left/left/left/right/right/right/right/right/right/right/right/right/right/ madly.

HOLD BOTH MOUSE BUTTONS DOWN AT THE SAME TIME!!!! AHAAAAA!!!!

That worked! Fixer-oni.

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both buttons is the key
Feb 10, 2007 6:17AM PST

Boy, I had the same problem for over a year, and I tried everything including resetting everything to factory defaults.

Thank you, thank you for the 'press both mouse buttons' solution. This fixed it. Neither one alone works, must be both at once.

Bruce

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Thanks
Mar 28, 2007 10:22AM PDT

This has been driving me crazy!!! Thank you so much for the solution.

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stcuck in cell
Apr 11, 2007 1:24AM PDT

Try pressing the scroll ball on the mouse- ive also solved the problem on another PC by playing daley thomsons decathalon with some of the buttons, cant remember which ones - tab/shift/ ctrl/ alt

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Works for other mouse sticking....
Jun 20, 2007 1:41AM PDT

Thanks, all. My mouse selected everything just out of the blue. I was just scrolling and using pg down to move through a long doc. All of a sudden it was selecting everything. Both the external mouse and the touchpad mouse of my new IBM Thinkpad T60.

I hit the left button repeatedly on the Thinkpad and all is well.

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Can't move between cells in excel with arrow keys
Oct 30, 2007 4:29PM PDT

I was having this same problem and none of the solutions on this page worked. Then I came across the "scroll lock" key in the upper right hand corner of my dell keyboard. I pushed and the problem went away.

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stuck in excel cell
Jul 20, 2008 10:28PM PDT

CLICKING (not srolling) on the scroll function on the mouse (not keyboard) did the trick for me. Didn't know this feature existed.
Thanks all.

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(NT) Thank you!
Jun 20, 2011 4:26AM PDT
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How to unstuck trapped in one cell
Jul 30, 2008 3:46AM PDT

This has nothing to do with windows or excel. Your keyboard has a button, probably up near your number pad with a SCROLL LOCK. Scroll lock does this. It has nothing to do with software settings. Enjoy

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Do NOT restore your Excel!!
Jan 20, 2009 10:20PM PST

I've experienced this problem and gone so far as to delete the worksheet it happened in and start again. Determined NOT to waste a bunch more time I googled and found this forum.

I also found the answer for me and hope it works for anyone else that experiences the extreme frustration I did!! What a moronic thing - there is something called "Sticky Keys" in Excel 2003. If you somehow hit the Shift key 5x times in a row it turns it on!!

While trying to fix this issue, I discovered that when I was toggling between programs they were going in the reverse direction (using Alt/Shift). Someone on this forum said to hit the F8 key repeatedly (did nothing for me) but when I noticed that the toggle was backwards, that led to my realization that the computer thought the shift key (not mouse) was locked.

TO FIX THIS PROBLEM:
Hit Shift key repeatedly until a little box pops up saying (paraphrasing) "hitting 5 times turns on StickyKeys"...click the cancel button in the box and it turns off the Shift lock clearing the problem.

If you use hot keys as much as I do that's probably how you turned it on.

Hope this answers everyones question regarding this in the future.

How annoying. LOL!!

P.S. Thanks to CNET for providing solutions like this forum!! Love your reviews and rely on them as wellHappy

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It's all in the Scroll Lock Command on Windows Keyboard
May 23, 2011 9:30PM PDT

I thought I lost something when I encountered this issue until I saw the little msg on the Word Status bar indicating "Scroll Lock" is switched ON. When I clicked by Scroll Lock button again the lock, in toggle mode, got switched OFF and Excel started behaving as usual with mouse and keyboard as expectedly.

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Yes SCROLL LOCK!
Oct 24, 2011 3:14AM PDT

I have that happen occasionally. It IS the Scroll Lock button above the number pad! Don't know how I accidentally hit it. Hope I remember that the next time.

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Cell cursor locked on Mac
Jan 13, 2012 2:33AM PST

If you are using a Mac with OS Lion and using Windows emulation, and using a Mac keyboard, the cursor may appeared locked to a cell. To unlock it, press F14 (at least on this particular Mac keyboard).