Excel 2007, Undesired selection of multiple cells

So it seems like we have three main solutions that work almost all the time:

1. Change from Page Layout to Normal view.
2. Change your magnification up/down.
3. Change how you are highlighting cells - either:

       a. Use the arrow keys to move away from the group of selected cells and back to the single cell you wanted, or

       b. When you click and get multiple cells, keep holding the mouse button down and drag in the opposite direction (left, up, or both) to reduce the cells selected to just the one you want.

(I think it was 3b that worked for Kelly?)

 

In addition, F8 works if you happen to be in extended mode, and turning off Sticky Keys works if you accidentally have them turned on. 

 

I read a post elsewhere about this being a problem with cursor orientation, and that the keyboard microprocessor may be having problems recognizing something to do with the Shift key?  The suggestion was to hit each one of your Shift, Alt, and Ctrl keys once, to help the keyboard figure itself out again.

 

I was going to say that this morning I couldn't remember having this problem in a long time, and that somewhere during that time I had switched from a cordless Logitech mouse to a standard corded (optical) Dell mouse.  Then I started having the problem again this afternoon.  There goes that theory.  Maybe it is the spreadsheet.  I do have many spreadsheets this has never happened in, but I think the one I was using today was the first one it did happen in.  I haven't used IT in a long time.  That's probably the connection.

 

Just thought I would recap...

Sue

Just as an FYI, when in page view it seems to only happen once you select the last row on the page.  Once you do that, you're stuck.  There are other ways that you can reset it, but it does seem that it's related to the last row on a page.  My suggestion is just to not use page view and view your document prior to printing it.  I have a support ID with Microsoft so I'll open up a case.

So it seems like we have three main solutions that work almost all the time:

1. Change from Page Layout to Normal view.
2. Change your magnification up/down.
3. Change how you are highlighting cells - either:

       a. Use the arrow keys to move away from the group of selected cells and back to the single cell you wanted, or

       b. When you click and get multiple cells, keep holding the mouse button down and drag in the opposite direction (left, up, or both) to reduce the cells selected to just the one you want.

(I think it was 3b that worked for Kelly?)

In addition, F8 works if you happen to be in extended mode, and turning off Sticky Keys works if you accidentally have them turned on. 

I read a post elsewhere about this being a problem with cursor orientation, and that the keyboard microprocessor may be having problems recognizing something to do with the Shift key?  The suggestion was to hit each one of your Shift, Alt, and Ctrl keys once, to help the keyboard figure itself out again.

I was going to say that this morning I couldn't remember having this problem in a long time, and that somewhere during that time I had switched from a cordless Logitech mouse to a standard corded (optical) Dell mouse.  Then I started having the problem again this afternoon.  There goes that theory.  Maybe it is the spreadsheet.  I do have many spreadsheets this has never happened in, but I think the one I was using today was the first one it did happen in.  I haven't used IT in a long time.  That's probably the connection.

Just thought I would recap...

Sue

Sue,

I found your fix to work. The F8, sticky key solutions above did not work.

THANKS!!

Hello,

Using F8, plus also altering the zoom level worked for me, when Excel started auto-selecting multiple cells.

1)   Using the information in the two July 29th 2010 posts, I used F8 to toggle-off this "feature".  That improved my situation from getting 6 or more cells to just getting 2 or 3 cells.

2)  Next, I increased my magnification to 110%.  That stopped the auto select of 2 to 3 cells.

3. Finally after using both techniques, I was able to get back to working in the one cell that I wanted!!!

This problem of clicking to get one cell and instead getting 2, or 3, or more cells is terribly annoying and cost me a several days of lost hours.  My frustration was so high that I would just stop and go back another day. I hope MicroSoft will fix this soon!

Yes, increasing the zoom level works, but why I don't know.  Just click on the " + " and try again until it works.  For me I had to increase from 70%, until finally at magnification 110% I could select just one cell, or just one row!

I am using Exel 2010.

NOTE:  To see what Excel is going to do, when you select a cell, hold down the left click and Excel will display either the cell you want, or it will display the number of rows that it is going to auto-select "times" a certain number of cells across:  ie  5R x 3C, means even though you only clicked one cell to work in, Excel is going to auto-selct 5Rows and go 3Cells across, or it might decide to do 2R x 2C, meaning it is going to auto-select 2Rows at 2Cells across, or any number of combinations such as 4R x 6C.  The selection of Rows and Columns seems to be random.

I hope this helps.  It seems that increasing the magnification works in all cases, while toggling F8 works either fully or in increments.  The thing about F8 is that in some instances it completely fixes the problem (toggles-off), but sometimes F8 only reduces the number of cells that will be auto-selected.

Regards,

DQEvans