Keyboard excel

[D]

Please help.
My keyboard keeps changing when I work with array formulas. I am not sure
which combination of keys causes the changes or how to fix it.
The keyboard is affected just in excel.
When I try and get an "=" sign I get a ")" instead, "z" is now "y" and "y"
is "z", etc...
Any ideas?

thanks
D

 

[Chip Pearson]

Assuming that you didn't spill a cup of coffee on the keyboard and
gunked up the works, the first thing to try is examine the AutoCorrect
options. Go to the Tools menu, choose AutoCorrect Options and see what
characters in the left side of the list are being replaced by
characters in the right side of the list.

Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP
Excel Product Group
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email on web site)

 

[D]

Thanks for your help Chip.
No I didn´t spill coffee or did anything unusual, other than working on some
arrays. I did manage to take the setting off the first time it happened
trying various combination of Ctrl+shift+etc keys but , now, it happened
again and I cannot get the keyboard back to normal.
I´m on excel 2007, I did check the autocorrect column in Excel Options but
the keys that are messed up bear no correlation to the auto correct list.

D

 

[Dave Peterson]

Any chance you have a programmable keyboard?

Maybe it's time to see if you reprogrammed it (by accident???).

You may want to borrow a keyboard to see if it is the keyboard, too.

 

[D]

The bug only affects Excel, the keyboard is fine when I use it on other
applications.
I did try again to fix the problem and, after several times I entered:
ctrl+shift+= + enter
or
ctrl+shift+enter
the keyboard went back to normal.
Then, I worked again on my array and here we go, same issue.
It really seems to be an excel 2007 problem.
If I keep retyping the combination above, at some point it will go back to
normal, but only after several attempts.

D

 

[Dave Peterson]

I'd still try another keyboard. It seems like the easiest test.

 

[Chip Pearson]

If it isn't coffee and it isn't AutoCorrect, I would guess that it is
either a bad keyboard driver (which doesn't explain, though, why this
behavior manifests itself only in Excel) or some add-in that is
causing the grief. Try downloading the latest drivers from the
keyboard vendor. Also, try this: Close Excel. Hold down the SHIFT key
and the start Excel. Holding down the SHIFT key prevents Excel from
running startup VBA code and add-ins. If that works, you'll have to
narrow down the problem by methodically removing add-ins and
restarting Excel until the problem goes away.

Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP
Excel Product Group
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email on web site)

 

[T Kirtley]

I like Dave's recommendation to try another keyboard; the return of incorrect
characters sounds more like a hardware problem... but I have also seen screwy
behavior like that when an Add-in uses special key combinations that conflict
with Excel. If you have any Excel Add-Ins installed try disabling them and
restart Excel. Another thought is if the keyboard in queston is wireless new
batteries would be a good idea... but if the problem persists I'd be shopping
for a new keyboard.

Good luck.

TK

 

[D]

thanks all for your help.
I am actually using my laptop inbuilt keyboard (thinkpad T61) and it would
be totally impractical to work with an additional keyboard or have the laptop
changed. But I am trying to find a spare keyboard to test your theory.
For the time being, I don´t need addins so I am going to use excel with all
addins inactive and see if the problem represents itself.
(I did manage to fix the keyboard again last night).


D