Select All missing, Ctrl-A not working (Excel 2003 SP2)

[JimO]

The Edit menu does not contain a Select All item.
Using Ctrl-A does not Select All, if there is an area to select. For
Example consider range (A1:A8) with data in each cell except for A3 and A6.

A1
A2

A4
A5

A7
A8

Placing the cursor on A5 and typing Ctrl-A only selects cells A4 and A5.


This is on each computer running Excel 2003 SP2 that I have tested. Is
Microsoft getting rid of Ctrl-A and Select All? Help still references
Ctrl-A.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Keep on hitting ctrl-a as many times as you need (you won't need more than 3,
IIRC).

ctrl-a's behavior changed depending on what was selected and what was in
surrounding cells.

 

[JimO]

I selected A5 then typed Ctrl-A. It selected A4 and A5.

Ctrl-A was then typed an additional ten times with the outcome that A4 and
A5 are still selected.

So, any ideas why Microsoft changed the behavior? Even help says it selects
the entire worksheet.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I put something in A4:A6 (and the rest of the worksheet was empty)
I selected A5 and hit ctrl-a, and A4:A6 was selected.
I hit ctrl-a again and all the cells were selected.

I'm not sure what the layout of your data would be to never select the all the
cells.

Well, if your worksheet is protected and the developer (you???) specified that
either unlocked cells (or locked cells) couldn't be selected, then you wouldn't
be able to select all the cells. Any chance of that?

And I have no idea why MS does anything. I'm sure they did usability studies
that found that those in the study needed this new behavior (whether they wanted
it or not!).

 

[JimO]

LOL! you sound like me with your jokes.

Strange, data was entered as you entered it and the second Ctrl-A worked.
So, I entered the data the way it was originally entered and, uh, the second
Ctrl-A worked.

Strange. Something has been reset and since the system is always
"adjusting" our system for our benefit it must have fixed what was
apparently broke.

Thanks.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Do what you have to do now--while the pc is working!

LOL! you sound like me with your jokes.

Strange, data was entered as you entered it and the second Ctrl-A worked.
So, I entered the data the way it was originally entered and, uh, the second
Ctrl-A worked.

Strange. Something has been reset and since the system is always
"adjusting" our system for our benefit it must have fixed what was
apparently broke.

Thanks.

 

[David McRitchie]

You can find a macro to make Ctrl+A work properly, but it just
puts off the inevitable destruction of your entire workbook when
you use Ctrl+A and have macros turned off or don't have the
macro available in the workbook. see
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/shortx2k.htm#foobar

And as Dave Peterson indicated there are situations where
you will have to hit Ctrl+A more than twice to get it to do what it
should be doing with a single invocation of Ctrl+A.

You would think that Ctrl+A like Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+Z
and also commonly used Ctrl+F, Ctr+H, and Ctrl+Y would never be
violated and if someone did mess up any of them
it would never make it into a public version but obviously that would be
an incorrect assumption. Note all but one of the most common shortcuts
are used with the left hand, while the right hand can be on the keyboard or
on the mouse. The exception is Ctrl+H but I probably invoke that with my
left hand as often as with both hands.

There is NO comparable shortcut for Ctrl+A
the gray select All key does not work the same (changes the active cell)
Ctrl+Shift+SpaceBar will also fail in later versions.

And it is correct to say not working properly because Ctrl+A
means one thing in all applications where selecting everything
makes sense because it is so embedded in things, even
before Windows.