How do I get rid of Hourglass

[Joe]

I was entering numbers on a worksheet when I accidentally scrolled through
cells B1600 through B1613, and maybe left clicked my mouse, and the following
appeared in cell B1614: B1600:B1613. Cells B1600 through B1613 were outlined
in blue, forming a blue-bordered rectangle. At the same time, my cursor
turned into an hourglass and nowhere on the worksheet will it change back
into a cursor so that I can perform any function. I want to save my work; but
when I clicked on the X in the upper right corner to close the worksheet, I
was not asked if I wanted to save the worksheet. Instead, I was told that the
program was not responding and that if I proceeded to close the worksheet, I
would lose my unsaved data.

What can I do to get rid of the hourglass without terminating the worksheet
so that I can save my data? Ctrl-alt-del or some other key combination? Help.
TIA. Joe

 

[Don Guillett]

try:
touching f8 key
tapping mouse scroll wheel
unstick shift key

 

[Zone]

Have you tried pressing Esc several times?

 

[Joe]

I've tried ESC, F8, unsticking shift key etc., but no luck. I opened Excel
again in a new window and tried to open the worksheet in question. The
worksheet opened in its unsaved form without my new data and gave me the
message "File in use. Worksheet 12.xls is locked for editing by 'Joe.'" So
it looks like I inadvertently locked the entire worksheet. There are
procedures for locking and unlocking worksheets or parts of them, but they
all require access to the "Tools" and "Format" functions within the
worksheet; but I'm totally locked out of the worksheet. So any solution I
guess will have to be from outside it. Thanks for the suggestions. Joe.

 

[Dave Peterson]

The "file in use" message isn't related to the worksheet being protected--or the
cells being locked. It's because excel thinks the file is in use by another
application (either another instance of excel or some other program).


Maybe these from Debra Dalgleish's site will help:
http://contextures.com/xlfaqApp.html#ReadOnly
http://contextures.com/xlfaqApp.html#AlreadyOpen

I'm guessing the first one may help.

 

[Bill Sharpe]

I was entering numbers on a worksheet when I accidentally scrolled through
cells B1600 through B1613, and maybe left clicked my mouse, and the following
appeared in cell B1614: B1600:B1613. Cells B1600 through B1613 were outlined
in blue, forming a blue-bordered rectangle. At the same time, my cursor
turned into an hourglass and nowhere on the worksheet will it change back
into a cursor so that I can perform any function. I want to save my work; but
when I clicked on the X in the upper right corner to close the worksheet, I
was not asked if I wanted to save the worksheet. Instead, I was told that the
program was not responding and that if I proceeded to close the worksheet, I
would lose my unsaved data.

What can I do to get rid of the hourglass without terminating the worksheet
so that I can save my data? Ctrl-alt-del or some other key combination? Help.
TIA. Joe

Try Ctrl + Break.

Bill