Excel Highlighting Gone Wild!

[carole]

Looking for a problem to be solved. My colleague opens
Excel 97 the cross appears to highlight cells and
continues to do so. The only way to close the package is
through ctrl-alt-del. Cannot use menus on toolbars as the
pointer never appears. Any advice? Besides upgrading!

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
try hitting F8 (could be that you have enabled the 'Extended' mode ->
'EXT' should appear in the statusbar)

 

[David McRitchie]

Extended mode (EXT) and Additional (ADD) mode require you to
click on the cell to change the selection. Hitting PF8 once or twice
will remove the EXT or ADD on the status bar and take you out of
extended mode. But ...

If simply moving the cursor is affecting what looks like a selection
then take a look at
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/ghosting.txt
and the fact that you can't access your menus or do much else
is an indication that this is where your problem is rather than
extended cells.

 

[Jim Rech]

I've found that this condition (my term: super extend mode) is usually fixed
with installing the newest mouse drivers.


For MS mice:
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/Download.mspx

--
Jim Rech
Excel MVP

| Looking for a problem to be solved. My colleague opens
| Excel 97 the cross appears to highlight cells and
| continues to do so. The only way to close the package is
| through ctrl-alt-del. Cannot use menus on toolbars as the
| pointer never appears. Any advice? Besides upgrading!

 

[Awr]

I have the same problem with excel 2000, with windows 2000 professional


Excel works as advertised for a period of time and then, suddenly an
without warning and as a result of nothing in particular, the whol
thing develops a mind of its own.

I have searched high and low for an answer without success.

I have found postings to various forums (fora?) most of which sugges
the "extended mode" solution (i.e. hitting f8) But this does not work


Excel will not respond to ANY commands except mouse movements whic
causes cells to become highlighted. I've tried up-to-date anti-viru
software, I've tried every combination of keyboard actions I can thin
of. The only thing to do is exit excel using the task manage
(ctrl-alt-del). If you then restart excel, nine times out it carries o
where it left off (i.e the first time you use the mouse, it replicate
the problem).

I am getting very adept at using the keyboard commands to operate exce
and making very very regular saves. (My wife is also getting fed u
with me using her PC instead of mine to do excel things)

I have a bog standard two button serial mouse.

Has anybody out there got a clue? (or an abacus going begging!!!)

cheer

 

[Ragdyer]

This is *not* uncommon.

Check out David McRitchie's web page on the subject:

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/ghosting.txt

 

[Awr]

Downloaded & installed intellipoint software, selected micrsoft mouse
still did it............

Selected the microsoft wheel nouse, disabled the wheel ... guess what
- still did it.....

Perhaps if I bought a wheel mouse??

 

[Don Guillett]

Bubba said "it depends on what your definition of GONE WILD is"

 

[Awr]

Everywhere I've looked for an answer to this I've been struck by the
absence of feedback from anybody with any success to report.

So I thought I'd tell you all how I got over it.

I downloaded intellipoint software - no change still plagued with a
wild highlighter.

Got rid of my 2 button serial mouse & replaced it with a 85 pence
(ebuyer.com) three button PS2 mouse.

Bingo. Four months of faffing about instantly over for a free 2 minute
download and 85 pence of my hard earned cash.

Deep deep joy.

Thank you God and everyone else who had a hand in this (especially this
forum). I am very grateful.
Thanks again