Excel 2016 - Cannot type anything into a cell all of a sudden

Anonymous
2017-04-14T07:08:05+00:00

Hi,

I am experiencing a problem with Excel 2016 that is really frustrating.

I am working normally in excel 2016, when all of a sudden I cannot type anything into a cell. If I press Ecs nothing happens. I do not have macros, nor protected sheet or cells. I am working with multiple (2 or more) open excel files at the same time. I tried to figure out, if I press some combination of keys that would cause this, but found nothing. I, however, can move the mouse over the sheet and click different cells. I think the arrow keys work as well.

The strange thing that always "solves" the problem is pressing Enter. Pressing the Enter opens another Excel file that is already opened, and after simply going back to the first one, I then can work on normally. This can occur once, twice but sometimes even 10-times in a single day! Just terrible.

This is time demanding, many times I write into a cell and then see that the cell is still blank, I press the enter to make it work again, going back... - I cannot work like this.

When I was working with the same files in Excel 2013 and 2010 I hadn't have experienced such problems. 

I already read some other forums with people experiencing the same problem, but haven't found any solution yet.

Do you have any?

Thank you!

P.

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Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-11-20T10:21:05+00:00

    I have the same annoying issue in my current PC (I7-8565U / 8GB Ram) and in a previous PC (I7 6th generation / 8GB Ram). Both running MS Office 365 home in win10.

    When is MS going to solve this pretty old and known issue?

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-10-04T07:25:31+00:00

    Personally I never had any issue with OpenOffice...

    It might happen BUT usually open source community is very responsive to solve bugs and problems so I think all the cases they faced in the past should cover 90% of common bugs. They wouldn't leave such issue for... 4-5 years like Microsoft is doing.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-10-04T07:08:08+00:00

    There is a workaround for this bug:

    Open the file with OpenOffice.

    Enter anything in an empty cell and save.

    Re-open with Excel and it works.

    Did that already for 10-15 files, worked all the time for us !

    Are you not afraid that when you open the excel file with OpenOffice, there might be some formatting or data loss especially if the file is complex or you have lots of formulas?

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-10-04T06:05:06+00:00

    There is a workaround for this bug:

    Open the file with OpenOffice.

    Enter anything in an empty cell and save.

    Re-open with Excel and it works.

    Did that already for 10-15 files, worked all the time for us !

    Was this answer helpful?

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-10-04T02:12:51+00:00

    Hi,

    I am experiencing a problem with Excel 2016 that is really frustrating.

    I am working normally in excel 2016, when all of a sudden I cannot type anything into a cell. If I press Ecs nothing happens. I do not have macros, nor protected sheet or cells. I am working with multiple (2 or more) open excel files at the same time. I tried to figure out, if I press some combination of keys that would cause this, but found nothing. I, however, can move the mouse over the sheet and click different cells. I think the arrow keys work as well.

    The strange thing that always "solves" the problem is pressing Enter. Pressing the Enter opens another Excel file that is already opened, and after simply going back to the first one, I then can work on normally. This can occur once, twice but sometimes even 10-times in a single day! Just terrible.

    This is time demanding, many times I write into a cell and then see that the cell is still blank, I press the enter to make it work again, going back... - I cannot work like this.

    When I was working with the same files in Excel 2013 and 2010 I hadn't have experienced such problems. 

    I already read some other forums with people experiencing the same problem, but haven't found any solution yet.

    Do you have any?

    Thank you!

    P.

    <Thread has been moved to the correct category by forum moderator>

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