Cursor Stuck In Select Mode

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andrew Chalk
  • Start date Start date
A

Andrew Chalk

I have an odd problem with Excel in Office XP running on XP Professional.

For no apparent reason the cursor will go into a "cell seelct" mode similar
to the one that is in effect when selecting a print area. It does this
without warning and cannot be exited. I have to kill Excel from Task
manager. No menu selections are accessable although I can Alt-tab to other
applications.

Any idea what causes this and how to fix it?

Many thanks.
 
Andrew,

Next time it happens try pressing the F8 key, that enters and exits
a selection extend mode. Try pressing it twice in cas it is in the
other select mode (Shift + F8). If you need to press it twice, try
pressing Shift + F8 once the next time it happens.

Dan E
 
Thanks, Dan. I tried F8 as you described but it didn't affect things. This
problem is very odd. It just goes into this mode without warning. Although a
keystroke is necessary to invoke it, it is not the same key
stroke/combination each time.

Regards
 
This is not an uncommon, occurrence in XL.

It's been called many things, one of which is "Ghosting".

Go to this Google Advanced site, and search using
"Ghosting".

http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:*excel

You'll be surprised at the number of posts relating to your problem.


HTH,

RD

====================================================
Please keep all correspondence within the Group, so that all may benefit!
====================================================





Thanks, Dan. I tried F8 as you described but it didn't affect things. This
problem is very odd. It just goes into this mode without warning. Although a
keystroke is necessary to invoke it, it is not the same key
stroke/combination each time.

Regards
 
Thanks! Apparently no single cure. The cause appears to be the mouse driver.

Regards
 
I have had same problem and put it down to the scroll button/wheel button on
the mouse. I hit this button a couple of times to release it.
 
Hi there,

I was having this same problem. It could be a bug or just tapping the touchpad wrong, but if this starts to happen, hit your left click button and it should stop doing this. I have a laptop and just hit my left click, but should work with a mouse as well. Hope this helps.

CH
 
I had the same issue. The issue was across all applications not just Excel. To solve the problem I RnR the batteries and re-synced. The drivers were auto reloaded. Now no more permanent selection issue.
 
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