Using F2 to edit a cell

[Guest]

I recently upgraded from Excel 2000 to Excel 2003. Now, when I press F2 to
edit a cell, the background of the cell turns blue, and pressing enter will
insert a new line within the cell instead of submitting the change. This is
very different from Excel 2000, and it is causing some frustrations for me.

I noticed that if I hit F2 twice, the background of the cell turns yellow,
and I can edit it like in 2000.

Hitting F2 a third time returns it to blue.

There must be an option to have it use the "yellow mode" by default instead
of the "blue mode". But I can find absolutely *nothing* in any documentation
about what these different modes actually mean. Could anyone fill me in?

Please do not suggest that I simply press F2 twice every time I want to edit
a cell.

Thanks,
DJustin

 

[Chip Pearson]

That is not the normal behavior of F2 in any version of Excel.
Perhaps you have a macro attached to that key. You can restore F2
to its default action with the following macro:

Sub AAA()
Application.OnKey "{F2}"
End Sub


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com

 

[Guest]

Hi Chip,

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't have any macros running, and the
executing the suggested code unfortunately didn't fix the problem. It came
pre-installed from Dell this way, which makes it puzzling to be the default
F2 action for Excel on my computer.

Any other suggestions? Btw, I also noticed that if I submit a cell in
"yellow-mode", the next time I press F2 on that cell, it opens as a blank
white box until I hit backspace.

Thanks,
DJustin

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you start excel in Safe mode, does it still behave this way?

close excel
windows start button|Run
excel /safe

File|open your workbook to test it.

 

[Guest]

Hi Dave,

I tried it in safe mode, and it still behaved that way.

Chip's post got me thinking. I pulled up macro security, went to the
"Trusted Publishers" tab, and unchecked "Trust all installed add-ins and
templates", even though I didn't have any add-ins that were active. It's
behaving like normal again now.

I do wish I knew which add-in or template was causing such trouble, but I'm
just happy to have it working properly again now.

Many thanks to both of you for your assistance!

DJustin

 

[Dave Peterson]

I was hoping that starting in safe mode would have stopped those other addins
from opening. But glad you got your problem resolved.