Odd cursor behaviour in Excel

[JayTee]

Does anyone have an answer to this? Often when I'm scrolling around a
s/sheet, the cursor gets 'pinned' onto one cell and moving it around merely
'selects' a range of cells one corner of whch is the pinned cell. Unplugging
my mouse and reverting to my laptop touchpad (or the cursor arrows on my PC)
makes no difference: it won't 'let go' of the pinned cell and a can't input
any command (especially the Save). All I can do is abort the Excel session
(Ctrl-Alt-del) then re-boot the PC, which seems a bit extreme. And loses all
work done up that stage - whicis v irritating.
Same thing happens to other excel users I've asked, but they've no idea
either.
Does anyone know what's going on? And even better how to fix it without
crashing out of Excel?

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Hi, JayTee,

If I understand your description, this is the same thing that happens if you
hold down the Shift key, or if you hold down the mouse button and drag in
Excel--it allows you to select multiple cells in Excel.

Could you have a stuck shift key on your keyboard, or could you have a mouse
button / function that acts like a selection button that either accidentally
got clicked or is stuck? Can you try a different mouse for awhile?

 

[JayTee]

Susan
Tanx for your input.
But I can't see how it's a stuck key or sprious extra mouse bitton, as it
has happened on several PCs and my laptop using a variety of mice (and
none). Also other users have said they experience the same problem.
In my own case, once it happens, the only 'fix' is to re-boot the machine
then re-open the xls file. I think you'll agree that's not a very good
solution.
Is this a deep mystery? Let's ask Bill

 

[Gary Smith]

Is it possible that you've accidently pressed F8? That will cause cursor
movement to extend the selection, but it shouldn't require a reboot to
cancel it. If that's what it is, you'll see "EXT" in the status bar, and
pressing Esc or F8 again will cancel it.

 

[JayTee]

Gary
thanks for your comment. But, honest, when it hppens, it's autonomous (i.e
as soon as I try to move the cursor away from whatever position it's in when
the file opens). I don't think if ever touched the F8 key (typing finger
can't reach that far!), but for sure hitting ESC doesn't get me out of it.
Looks like I've a ghost in my Excel

 

[Gary Smith]

I don't know what to tell you then. If extended selection is getting
triggered, as pressing F8 would do, then "EXT" would show in the status
bar and pressing Escape would cancel that mode. This must be something
else. Does pressing and releasing the Shift key cancel it?

 

[Susan Ramlet]

JayTee,

Have you tried a different keyboard, to see if it really is the keyboard?

 

[pandc]

I think the problem is a "stuck" mouse wheel, clicking the mouse wheel
or holding down control and clicking the mouse wheel fix it for me.

 

[GrahamL]

I see that someone else (search for "keyboard") has a similar proble. I have
it too. He suggests that it's only been happening since he installed IE7,
and that sounds like me too. Only happens with Office products. Or is yours
ONLY Excel? Mine happens in Word, Excel and Outlook - no other programs, so
its clearly an Office problem, not a keyboard or mouse problem.

Cheers

Graham