Has Ctrl-A shortcut changed?

[Guest]

Is it my imagination or has the Ctrl-A (Select All) shortcut key changed? It
seems that it always used to select the entire sheet, the same as clicking
the button in the upper-left corner of the sheet.

Now when I press Ctrl-A it only selects a range of used cells based on the
location of the active cell. If I move to a different cell and press Ctrl-A
I get a different range highlighted. Only if my active cell is not in what
is considered a range of used cells does Ctrl-A select the entire sheet.

Has it always been this way? Did I just never stumble upon it? Is my
Alzheimer's acting up again? Or did I inadvertently change the operation of
Ctrl-A somehow (is there an option somewhere? I could not find any.)

TIA
Charlie

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

I'm only (relatively) recently returned to Excel after a long absence from
it, so I can't speak for prior versions, but what you describe is how both
my copies of XL2003 and XL2007 work. To get the whole sheet selected from
within a range of filled in cells, you need to press Ctrl+A a second time...
pressing it once selected the filled in range, pressing it again extends
that selection to the whole sheet.

Rick

 

[Guest]

One thing that can change how short-cuts work is whether you have the
Transition Navigation Keys check box checked or not. From the menu choose
Tools > Options and select the Transition tab. This may not be your issue,
but it's something you could try.

Keith

 

[Guest]

We recently had a workstation update pushed out to us. That may have
included a change to Excel, although Help->About seems to show the same
version as before. (I don't usually pay much attention to the version
number.) XL2003.11.8134.8132 SP2

I don't think I'm losing my mind. I'm quite certain it always only selected
the entire sheet. Having been a programmer since before the invention of the
PC and mouse I am accustomed to using keyboard shortcuts, and would notice
immediately of a change in operation.

Funny thing about the "press-it-again" option... that was the first thing I
tried, with no effect, before I posted here. So when you suggested I try
that I was surprised to see it work. After several attempts of changing the
active cell and pressing Ctrl-A twice, I finally broke it again, i.e. just
that one time. (With a co-worker as a witness!) So, a couple of times
pressing Ctrl-A twice didn't work but I don't know why. Timing quirk?

If Microsoft did in fact recently change the operation of Ctrl-A, I have no
problem with that, (as long as I can do the press-twice), but it would be
nice if they would put an option in place so I could revert to the old
operation if I want.

Thanks for the tip.

Charlie

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the tip. Checking and unchecking that option didn't seem to have
any effect. And I tried closing Excel and restarting after changing that
option.

I can live with the "press-it-twice" method as suggested by R.R., but I wish
there was an option to change it back!

 

[Guest]

Ok, try this... open a new workbook. Enter something in a cell, say C7. Now
click in each of the cells bordering C7 and press Ctrl-A once, then twice.
It is not possible to select the entire sheet from any cell directly to the
left or above the cell or range having data.

Try entering data in B2, C2, C3, C4 and doing the above test, clicking cells
in row 1 and column "A". Only A4 worked. Do you think this is a bug?

 

[Dave Peterson]

David McRitchie's has a macro workaround:
http://mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/shortx2k.htm#foobar

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

You are right... I never noticed that before; of course, from force of
habit, I pretty much always use the blank square in the top left corner of
the spreadsheet.<g>

Rick

 

[Guest]

Well, I am running xl2003, sp2 on XP Home and if I use Ctrl + a, I get the
entire sheet selected. Same thing with Shift + Ctrl + Spacebar. I can't
make it select only the data fields unless I am within the data range when I
execute the command.
So the answer is, if the cursor is outside the Used range, it selects the
etire sheet first. If the cursor is inside the used range, it selects the
used current range first.

 

[Guest]

Did you try my test above? (Second post under Rick)

 

[Guest]

Yes, that explains it. It's the new version of ExcHell we went to. I
remember now posting a problem a few weeks ago regarding version
incompatibility. A report generated on a server here is Excel 2002 and when
I move it to my workstation (Excel 2003) it recalculates all the formulas.

Problem was some of my formulas used embedded macros that operated on the
active sheet. But the recalculation was being done on whatever sheet was the
active sheet when the workbook was closed. For example, formulas on Sheet2
were calculating with values from Sheet1 cells. I chose to remove the
functions from the formulas and redo my work.

Regarding the macro from that web site... I don't quite follow. Am I
supposed to bind the Ctrl-A key to the Ctrl_A sub? How do I do that?

When I ran the macro it selected all cells correctly but it didn't record
any macro that I could find. Have you implemented this work-around?

 

[Guest]

Found it. (Assign macro to a key.)

David McRitchie's has a macro workaround:
http://mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/shortx2k.htm#foobar

 

[Guest]

Yeah, that is a bugger. Northwest hemisphere works as expected, but
southeast ignores the current range protocol. I guess Microsoft decided it
wasn't worth the effort to fix it. Not very many people who use keystroke
commands in code anymore, so the manual operations have alternatives that
allow them to continue working. Maybe someday when one of the whiz kids has
some time on their hands they will fix it.

 

[Dave Peterson]

This is one of David's pet peeves <vbg>.

Personally, I just keep hitting ctrl-a and watch the screen. But I'm too lazy
to care about the change <bg>.