Why does Excel select a range instead of just the cell clicked on

[Geekette]

In Excel 2007, when I click on a cell, it arbitrarily selects several
adjacent cells as well. If I touch a directional arrow on the keyboard to
move (for example) up and then back down to the cell I want, it lets go, but
this is a major nuisance. It's also happening to two other people I work with
and we're all in different files. Why does this occur and how can I make it
stop? Is it a bug in the software?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[Jon Peltier]

Does it select the range from the cell that was selected to the new cell you
select? You might have hit the F8 key, which toggles the selection mode. If
you see "EXT" in the status bar, over toward the right of the screen, this
is what happened. Simply hit F8 again to toggle back to regular mode.

- Jon

 

[dleo]

Does the cell you are clicking on contain a formula?

 

[Ross Comer]

I'm running into the same problem on Excel 2007 where when I click on one
cell the selection expands to include the cell to the right.

Status bar doesn't show Extending. Hitting F8 does show Extending and
extends the selection even further. Hitting F8 again brings it back to just
selecting two cells.

This only happens on one spreadsheet. Other spreadsheets are fine.

 

[Gord Dibben]

Change the Zoom setting slightly to see if that stops the multi-cell
selection.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Jon Peltier]

That indicates something fishy with the one workbook.

- Jon

 

[Ross Comer]

I've narrowed this down to only occuring when the worksheet in question is in
Page Layout View. Clicking some cells also selects the adjacent cell.
Changing the view to Normal restores normal behavior.

This only occurs on one machine. Another machine opening the same workbook
works fine in all views. I have taken the workbook in question and deleted
all data and the issue still happens.

If there is nothing obvious don't spend too much time on this as I have a
contact who might be able to help as well.