text in cells disappear when typing

[sjarelke]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC

Hi,

this is a very intermittent problem, not file related and with the latest updates installed !!

when typing text in a cell, about every 4 seconds the content of this specific cell is deleted... So when entering some long words, you need to start whole over again in every cells...
It's like there is a refresh of a specific cell, but the content of this specific cell is gone !! Anyone the same problems?
Thanks in advance

 

[DanBrotsky]

I suspect you are seeing the same problem I am: an intermittent loss of keyboard focus in the cell while typing. What happens is that you double-click (say) to type into the cell (or click in the formula bar). After an indeterminate period of time ranging from less than a second to a max of 3 or 4 seconds, Excel removes focus from the text entry field and returns it to the cell itself (exactly as if you had hit return with the preference set to keep focus on the cell rather than moving down or right). The result of this is that, when you enter your next keystroke, the current entry in the cell is wiped out and replaced by the keystroke (exactly as if you selected the cell and started typing).

I see this behavior consistently on both of my Intel laptops (a macbook pro and a macbook air), but have never seen it on any desktop mac. (All are running Leopard, latest updates, and latest updates of Excel.) I see this problem with all sheets. To see it, I simply open a new workbook, click in the first cell, and type three letters. Then if I pause and wait a second or two, the cell gets selected as a whole (the insertion caret disappears).

The timing of the loss of insertion point does not seem to depend on whether I am typing or not, and it is not consistent. Sometimes the caret vanishes immediately, sometimes it takes a few seconds.

Another user reported this problem as early as April in this post:

<http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Excel/1673/0>

but received no help. If there are any MS engineers reading this forum, it would be great to hear whether you have any clues about this behavior. It makes Excel essentially unusable on all my laptops.

 

[Pat McMillan]

I work in the Mac Business Unit at Microsoft and we'd like to help figure
this out. So far, we haven't been able to reproduce this. If anyone
encountering this could send me a system profile that would be a great place
to start.

Thanks,

Pat McMillan
(e-mail address removed)