how to remove scroll lock in excel for mac

Remove Scroll Lock In Excel How To Correctly Enter
Remove Scroll Lock In Excel Install A Virtual

Ryan Dube is a freelance contributor to Lifewire and former Managing Editor of MakeUseOf, senior IT Analyst, and an automation engineer.

It can be very annoying when your arrow keys are not working in Excel.

The issue with arrows not working in Excel can happen at any time, whether youre in the middle of editing a worksheet or switching between sheets.

This makes it even more difficult to troubleshoot the source of your problem.

Older versions of Excel may not display the scroll lock status as described in this article, but many of the solutions may still work.

This can be especially frustrating if your keyboard doesnt have a Scroll Lock key, or there is no light indicator showing its enabled.

So, the best approach is to confirm whether scroll lock is enabled, and if it isnt, move down the list of other troubleshooting tips.

The following troubleshooting tips are listed in order of the most common to the least common causes for this issue, so working from first to last will solve the problem faster.

Check the status bar in Excel to see whether scroll lock is enabled.

If it is, disable it using the Scroll Lock key on your keyboard, or using the on-screen keyboard in Windows.

On MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, FN Shift F12 will do the same.

Remove Scroll Lock In Excel Install A Virtual

On other Mac laptops or smaller keyboards, youll need to install a virtual keyboard app that includes the F14 key in order to disable scroll lock in Excel.

Formula Entry mode is when you select a cell in Excel, type and then start typing a function.

If you press an arrow key in this mode, the selected cell in the formula will change, but the arrow keys wont control the cursor in the sheet.

To get arrow keys working again, press Enter and then Ctrl-Z to undo the current formula.

Remove Scroll Lock In Excel How To Correctly Enter

This behavior can be confusing so make sure you understand how to correctly enter data into Excel cells.

If all the cells in the sheet youre looking at are inside of a group of columns or rows youve frozen, it may appear as though arrow keys stopped working in Excel.

If you dont want to unfreeze those panes, you could also try to zoom out the magnification in Excel so that you can use the arrow keys in the section of the spreadsheet that isnt frozen.

To find a recent add-in you installed and disable it, select File Options Add-ins.

If your arrow keys work again, you can go back and enable the add-ins one at a time to narrow down the culprit.

Sometimes, glitches with the Sticky Keys feature in Windows can cause Excel to see the Scroll Lock key as enabled even when it isnt.

When you open a protected workbook or worksheet, you wont be able to select cells or scroll through them.

How To Remove Scroll Lock In Excel For Mac