Comments in-line. This is my interpretation only - I may be completely
wrong about Excel's inner workings, but I think my explanation is
self-consistent.
CyberTaz said:
No challenge intended but just seeking information. I've had dozens of
people tell me it 'can't' be done but nobody has been able to explain why:
Based on my limited knowledge I find it hard to understand why the 'entry
mode' can have a keystroke assigned to it but can't be made available for
the user to customize. Since the assigned keystroke is;
Edit the active cell CONTROL+U
Why shouldn't another keystroke be able to be assigned instead of/in
addition to that one?
There's no inherent reason that I know of - MS could have come up with a
command that enters Edit Mode, and made it assignable via the UI. They
just didn't.
Edit Mode itself isn't a command - it's a state. In that state, many,
but not all, controls are disabled. Others (e.g., arrow keys, CMD-b)
have a different scope of operation.
The Format Painter controls also enter a state - and there *is* an Excel
command that causes Excel to enter that state. And that command can be
assigned a custom Keyboard shortcut.
The same thing presumably could have been done for Edit Mode.
I'm also unclear as to the 'object' distinction ‹ The cells of a spreadsheet
(AFAIK) are Text Box display control objects no different than drawn text
box objects or other shapes.
Not really. In the Excel Document Object Model (DOM), cells are a type
of Range Object that have properties such as Value (the stored value),
Text (the displayed value), Formula (self-explanatory), Row and Column,
Top and Left, Height and Width, Hyperlink, Style, Interior, Font, etc.
Some of these properties are the same as with Shape objects, such as
text boxes and other drawn shapes. But there are significant differences
in properties and methods.
Edit Mode is also different for cells, in that the result of the entry
when Return (or tab, etc) is hit is sent to XL's input parser to be
interpreted and a value calculated.
They're simply connected to one another to form a tabular grid.
Actually, that's only the product of the drawing engine. There's no
"table-ness" to cells' connections. They have linear connections (Next,
Previous) and Calculational connections (Dependents, Precedents), but
the grid is purely a visual meta-phor.
If a menu command [specifically; Edit Text] can be available
for adding/entering content into drawn shapes I simply don't know enough to
understand why a similar command can't be used for a cell... And if the
command can be used a stroke should be assignable as well.
Does assigning a key command to "Edit Text..." do anything for you in
the UI? I can't see it changing anything when I have a shape (other
than Word Art) selected. And when I put the command on a toolbar, I
can't find any conditions under which it's active except when Word Art
is selected, and then it opens a dialog box.
As far as "Edit Text" (sans ellipsis), I think it only appears in the
pop-up contextual menu when a shape is selected, and then its function
is to change the selection from the shape to the Text Frame of the
Shape. But I can't seem to assign a keyboard shortcut to it via the U/I.
I can, using the same method I used to assign F2 (i.e., the
Application.OnKey method).
Make no mistake, Control+U is fine as far as I'm concerned, and I understand
the bit about F2 being assigned differently on Macs. I'd just like to have a
better answer to give others because this issue comes up quite frequently.
It doesn't have to be a detailed technical explanation, but any insight you
can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Not sure any of the above is ultimately useful...
