Excel 2004: Cursor keys don’t work as expected in editable cell

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Microsoft
March 21st, 2006 • 3:11 pm

In Excel, there are basically two editing modes: one mode where the focus is on the spreadsheet itself, and one mode where the focus is on a specific cell and you can edit the contents of that cell. (I am assuming here that the “Edit directly in cell” option is on in Excel’s preferences. Otherwise, you can only edit a cell’s contents through the formula bar.)

In the first mode, the cursor keys can be used to switch from cell to cell in the spreadsheet table. The Left key goes to the next cell on the left, the Right key to the next cell on the right, etc.

In the second mode, on the other hand, the focus is on the contents of a specific cell, and the cursor keys can be used to move the cursor (insertion point) around inside the cell. The Left key moves the insertion point by one character to the left, the Right key by one character to the right, etc.

There are various ways of switching from the first mode to the second. You can, for example, double-click on a cell with the mouse. When a given cell is selected, you can also use the control-U shortcut to switch to the cell editing mode and place the insertion point at the very end of the existing cell contents. (Don’t ask me how they came up with the control-U shortcut. I have absolutely no idea.)

But there is yet another way to cause Excel to switch from the first mode to the second. When a cell is selected, you can simply start typing something. This automatically switches Excel to cell editing mode, and whatever you type replaces the existing contents of the cell.

There is only one big problem. If you switch from the first mode to the second mode by doing this (i.e. starting to type something), then Excel somehow “forgets” to also change the behaviour of the cursor keys.

In other words, if you switch to cell editing mode simply by starting to type something in a cell, the cell’s contents become editable and your insertion point is visible inside the cell, but you cannot move the insertion point around using the cursor keys! Using the cursor keys in such a situation will result in the behaviour that normally occurs in the other mode, i.e. cause Excel to jump from cell to cell!

Argh!

What a piece of utter crap this application is.

(UPDATE: When this problem occurs, you can force Excel to switch the behaviour of the cursor keys by pressing control-U even though Excel is already in cell editing mode and the cursor is already visible. This will not change the behaviour or position of the cursor, which is already visible at the end of the contents of the cell, but it will force the cursor keys to start working as expected.)


One Response to “Excel 2004: Cursor keys don’t work as expected in editable cell”

  1. Hour Zero with Office 2008 » devangoldstein.com says:

    […] to use my trackpad/mouse or use bogus keyboard shortcut Ctrl-U. That this is a problem is not news. I should be able to click either Enter or Return to toggle the edit state of the […]

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