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How to Fix Arrow Keys Not Moving Cells in Excel (7 Easy Ways)

August 2, 2023 4.5K views

Arrow keys in the Excel book play a significant role in helping you to move from one cell to another. You can move an Excel worksheet with a single key press with the help of functional arrow keys. Have you ever thought about why these arrow keys are necessary?

To add ease and comfort to your work, such as managing, adding, and analyzing data on Excel sheets, you must have quick and productive ways to complete your task. Hence, if you don’t want to make your process frustrating and time-consuming, it is necessary to use arrow keys to move from one cell to another containing specific information.

7 Easy Ways to Solve Arrow Keys Not Moving Cells in Excel

It is a fact that arrow keys in Excel make everything quick and productive for you whether you are using WPS Excel at an individual or professional level. One of the basic features that make the WPS Excel is to function appropriately.

However, sometimes it is understood that all these are softwares or tools that can occasionally malfunction. It may sometimes lead to making your entire work incredibly irritating and frustrating.

You don’t need to sit idle while looking at the screen of the Excel worksheet showing the issue of excel arrow keys not moving cells; if you don’t know how to solve the issue of excel arrow keys not moving cells in Excel, here are a few effective methods that work effectively and help you to get out of this issues easily.

Method 1: Wait a Few Moments

Sometimes, the arrow keys in Excel might not work due to a temporary glitch that causes a slowdown or lagging of the entire process on the Excel worksheet. It happens mostly because of adding multiple entries of data or formulas at a time.

Hence, first, you need to know that all your keys are working properly, and then if you see the problem is persistent, it is better to wait a while. After waiting a few moments, it will help you return to the usual way of working and resolve excel arrow keys not moving cells issues.

Method 2: Disable the Scroll Lock in Excel

When you are finding difficulty moving from one place to another, it is necessary to make sure that the scroll lock is disabled, which causes retardation in your processing while working on an Excel worksheet.

It would be best to go to the lower-left corner and right-click on the “Ready” option. A customization status bar option will appear. An option of “Scroll Lock” is “ON.” Simply click on it to turn it off and enable the working of arrow keys in excel.

Method 3: Disable Add-Ins

When you work on an Excel worksheet, you have integrated the add-ins in it for using the multiple productive functions that Excel can offer to process your work easily and quickly. But sometimes, these add-ins may cause lagging or a few other problems in Excel during work, leading to the malfunctioning of arrow keys, such as excel arrow keys not moving cells. Disabling them is necessary so they will not frustrate you while working.

Step 1: Open Excel, now click on File Menu. There you see “More,” click on it and go to “Options.”

Step 2: Go to the “Add-ins” option and click on “Excel Add-ins” by dropping down and click on “Go.”

Step 3: After selecting all Add-ins, now click “OK.”

Step 4: Now uncheck all Add-ins and click on “OK.”

Method 4: Turn Off Scroll Lock

When you notice that arrow keys are not moving cells in excel, it is necessary to have you unknowingly ON the scroll lock on your physical keyboard. Hence, make sure that you have properly turned it off to resolve the excel arrow keys not moving cells issues.

Go to the right top of the keyboard and click the “Scroll Lock” button to turn it off and get back the functions of the arrow keys on the Excel worksheet.

Method 5: Enable Sticky Keys

The method that helps you to improve excel arrow keys not moving cells functioning in excel, is enabling the sticky keys. You have to follow below-mentioned ways to enable the sticky keys:

Step 1: Open “Control Panel

Step 2: Explore the option “Change How Your Keyboard Works

Step 3: Now jump to “Turn on Sticky Keys” option. Then, ensure that you click on “Apply” and then “OK.”

Method 6: Exit Formula Entry Mode

When you turn on the Formula Entry Mode, it will deactivate the function of the arrow keys to control the cursor and move to cells in the worksheet. Therefore, it is necessary to reactivate the arrow keys by pressing “Enter” and, after this, Ctrl + Z. You will do this technique when you have selected a cell after entering “=.” Hence, once you execute this strategy, it will undo or exist the “Formula Entry Mode.”

Method 7: Unfreeze Columns

In the worksheet, when you see that the arrow keys are not working well within the frozen columns and rows, it may happen because of the panes in the spreadsheet section. To make your arrow keys again functional, you need to unfreeze the panes that lead to excel arrow keys not moving cells. Whether you zoom in or out, you will get a full view of the spreadsheet assisted by the functional arrow keys.

Why Do Arrow Keys Stop Working in Excel?

When you start working on your workbook in the Excel program, you may notice that the most functional and used keys are the arrow keys. These keys play a significant role in moving the workbook from one to another.

Moving from one cell to another will show an active cell where you have placed your arrow keys. But what gets stuck while moving from one cell to another? What if your arrow keys stop working in Excel? If you find difficulty moving between cells on the worksheet and your cells are not working properly, leading to a condition of excel arrow keys not moving cells, it mostly happens when:

  • View Mode of Protected Worksheet

  • While Processing Complex Data

  • Working in Entry Mode

  • Enabled Scroll Lock option

You fix all these issues when you pay little attention to the working criteria of your entries in the worksheet. You can resolve it by turning off the scroll lock, add-ins, and sticky key glitches.

So, you need to turn off the feature of the enabled scroll lock that ultimately allows excel arrow keys not moving cells to work again properly. Further, you can check the Scroll Lock Button on your keyboard to ensure it is disabled.

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FAQS

1: How do I enable Scroll Lock in Excel?

Scroll Lock is a prominent feature of Excel that helps you to determine what will happen when you use the Arrow Keys on a physical keyboard or keyboard in Excel. Here are simple steps that can help you a lot to get comprehensive knowledge about enabling the Scroll Lock in Excel while working on your document. Take a glance!

Step 1: Open the Excel Window and Right Click on the lower-left corner “Ready.”

Step 2: Here you can get the “Customization Status Bar” box. There is an option of “Scroll Lock” which is “OFF” by default. Simply click on it, and it will automatically enable “ON” status.

2: What are Add-Ins in Excel?

Add-ins are supplements that help you enhance your Excel software's features. When you try to create, change, and upgrade something in your Excel document, add-ins significantly make your work easy and quick while processing.

Excel add-in always allows you to extend the functionality and features within your workbook that can easily approach multiple platforms such as Mac, browsers, Windows, and iPad. You can use the specialized functions within the workbook while integrating the Excel add-ins to your Excel program.

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15 years of office industry experience, tech lover and copywriter. Follow me for product reviews, comparisons, and recommendations for new apps and software.