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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  1. Anonymous
    2020-08-24T11:51:07+00:00

    Turn on the num lock on your keyboard. 

    Thanks

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-04-24T14:08:15+00:00

    I have been using Excel for decades, but saw this problem only recently. This happens o ly when I have opened multiple files.

    There's no solution from Microsoft. 

    Workaround is to click on any other open Excel file, click on a cell there, come back to the original file and type away.

    It's annoying. But since I found this work around recently, at least I can proceed with my work instead if getting frustrated with the issue. 

    Hope this helps. If this solves your problem,  you can go ahead and mark it as a solution,  so that others will find it easy to find it. Thanks.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-09-03T09:29:40+00:00

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-04-27T10:24:58+00:00

    Is this only affecting Office365 click to run installations, or are people having this issue on 2013/2016 full installations of Excel?

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-04-20T16:38:54+00:00

    Hi P,

    Given the situation, I suggest you uninstall the Office 2016 applications by using the easy fix it tool in the article and then re-install them to see the outcome.

    Note: Make sure that the Office 2016 applications are completely uninstalled before re-installing them. If you see that the green tick behind Fixed after you use the tool, it shows that the Office 2016 applications are completely uninstalled.

     

    Thanks,

    Cliff

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