Ctrl-Home, Ctrl-End disabled

[Jim Birch]

Windows XP Pro, Excel 2002: Have a small workbook with
five worksheets. The navigation keys Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-
End, which are supposed to go to the top and bottom of
the sheet, respectively, seem to be disabled. Nothing
happens when the key combination is pressed. Does it have
anything to do with "protecting" the worksheets?

 

[David McRitchie]

Hi Jim,
I can make them "fail" too, if I turn on Transition Navigation keys.
Suggest you turn them off, even if you had been a Lotus 1-2-3 user.
Tools, Transition (tab), turn off transition navigation keys

 

[Jim Birch]

I looked and the checkbox you refer to is not checked, so
I don't think that is the problem. Haven't used Lotus 1-2-
3 since the late 1980s!

-----Original Message-----
Hi Jim,
I can make them "fail" too, if I turn on Transition Navigation keys.
Suggest you turn them off, even if you had been a Lotus 1-2-3 user.
Tools, Transition (tab), turn off transition navigation keys


"Jim Birch" <[email protected]> wrote

in message news:[email protected]...

 

[Dave Peterson]

I've never seen a "normally" protected worksheet behave this way.

But I could protect the worksheet in code and have trouble (depending on which
cells were locked on that protected sheet).

Option Explicit
Sub testme03()
With Worksheets("Sheet1")
.Protect Password:="hi"
.EnableSelection = xlUnlockedCells
End With
End Sub


And xl2002 added the ability to set the enableselection property via the
userinterface.

===
A little testing:
do you have the same problem on a brand spanking new worksheet (with a little
test data in it)?

If yes, how about if you start excel in safe mode:

Close excel
windows start button|Run
excel /safe

Put some test data in that new worksheet and test it out.

If that doesn't have trouble, then maybe you've got a "helpful" macro that's
reassigned the ctrl-home and ctrl-end key.

You can disable and enable those keys in code:

Option Explicit
Sub disableThem()
Application.OnKey "^{home}", ""
Application.OnKey "^{end}", ""
End Sub
Sub EnableThem()
Application.OnKey "^{home}"
Application.OnKey "^{end}"
End Sub

Try running the enable version and see if things stay ok. If they don't, then
you may have a workbook/addin that's trying to help.

Chip Pearson has some instructions for finding that helpful program:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/StartupErrors.htm

If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm

 

[Guest]

I opened a blank worksheet, added a little data and the
Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End combos appear to work correctly,
even with the sheet protected. (Of course I had to leave
a few cells unlocked so that there were cells to
navigate.)

The workbook with the problem does not include any
macros, nor are any add-ins loaded--at least none are
checked when I look at Tools|Add-ins command and none are
listed as available in the VBA editor. The workbook had a
Auto_Start macro in it at one time, but the person I was
doing it for was an inexperienced Excel user and was
uncomfortable dealing with the macro security dialog box
all the time, so I deleted the macro project.

In fact, since I don't use these navigation key combos, I
didn't really notice the problem. It came up when the
person I was doing it for installed the template on his
XL2003 system and noticed the problem. So I think it is
related to the workbook, not my system or my copy of
Excel. Any issues involved with this being a template
(.xlt) versus an actual workbook?

 

[Dave Peterson]

It might not be a macro problem, but macros can hide pretty well. Make sure
you check under each sheet and ThisWorkbook module, too.

But if you start excel in safe mode and then open your workbook, do the shortcut
keys work? If yes, then maybe it is a macro.

But it may be the way to protect the sheet. You wrote that you left a few cells
unlocked in your test worksheet.

I can leave all the cells locked and the ctrl-home and ctrl-End still work
fine--if I protect the worksheet with both "select locked cells" and "select
unlocked cells" checked (under tools|Protection|protect sheet).

How did you protect the sheet?

I don't think it has anything to do with the workbook being a template.

I'm kind of confused. Does the problem exist on every pc when you load the
workbook--or just your coworker's pc?


(I'm still putting my money on the way you protected the worksheet--but not a
lot <vbg>.)

 

[Dave Peterson]

But it may be the way YOU (not "to") protect the sheet. You wrote that you left
a few cells
unlocked in your test worksheet.

 

[Merlin]

It doesn't have anything to do with protecting the
worksheets, but I don't know what the problem is.

 

[Jim Birch]

I started Excel in safe mode and opened the template, but
get the same result--key combos didn't work.

I was protecting the worksheet with access only to the
unlocked cells. When I set it to access both locked and
unlocked cells, the key combos did seem to work. By
permitting only access to the unlocked cells, I intended
that a user could jump between the unlocked cells with
the Enter or Tab key. Allowing access to the locked cells
complicates that. I guess I may have choose where to
compromise. Although, as I said earlier, it worked okay
in the little "test" worksheet I created, even with only
the unlocked cells accessible.

It has only be tried on two computers. I can see if I get
the same behavior on several more.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Maybe you could have the other user just hit the Home key. When I was (light)
testing, that seemed to take me to the top left most unlocked cell. (Plain old
End took me to the bottom right most unlocked cell, too.)

And compromise is a good thing!