Using arrow keys in Excel should have moved the cursor to the next cell instead of dragging the entire spreadsheet. I have encountered this problem myself in the past – pressed the down arrow key and it didn’t take me to the next cell below it but move the entire spreadsheet down while the cursor remains on the same cell.
At first, I thought it was caused by some unknown error, so I reopened the Excel file but the problem remained. After spending some minutes searching on the Net and operating on my laptop, this problem was solved instantly! It is not a program error, but I must have somehow turned the Scroll Lock on by accident. The way to fix arrow keys not working in Excel is to turn off the Scroll Lock from the keyboard or from the on-screen keyboard.
Simple Steps to Fix Excel Arrow Keys Scroll on Windows
- If you are using a desktop computer
Step 1. Press Scroll Lock on the Keyboard
You just need to find and press the “Scroll Lock” key on your keyboard. Scroll Lock may also label as ScrLk.
- If you are using a Windows laptop
There is no Scroll Lock key on the keyboard, but you can activate the virtual keyboard to operate.
Step 1. Open Windows On-Screen Keyboard
Here are three ways to open On-Screen Keyboard, pick an arbitrary one.
- Use the shortcut key: Windows + Ctrl + O.
- Type On Screen Keyboard in the search box at the bottom left of the screen, which will appear as a list above the search box, click the On-Screen Keyboard search result.
- Click on the Windows key and the R key together, the dialogue box will show up. Then type “osk”, which means On Screen Keyboard, and then click on OK or press Enter.
Step 2. Turn Off Scroll Lock
Click on “ScrLk” to turn off Scroll Lock.
On Mac: Fix Arrow Keys Not Working in Excel
Mac uses the F14 key to disable/enable Scroll Lock. If you don’t have a physical keyboard with an F14 key, you can access the Keyboard Viewer on Mac and turn off Scroll Lock through the F14 key on the virtual keyboard.
How to Tell from Excel That It is Been ‘Scroll Locked’
In addition to using the Up, Down, Left, and Right keys to move the selected cell, there is another easy way to know whether Scroll Lock is been enabled. By default, Excel will show whether Scroll Lock is turned on. If it is turned on, SCROLL LOCK will appear in the status bar of Excel. If not, the status bar is clean.
If you don’t want Excel to show Scroll Lock status, just right-click the status bar and uncheck the tick in front of Scroll Lock.
The next time you encounter the problem of arrow keys don’t work in Excel, you can calmly solve it by turning off the Scroll Lock. Thank you for reading.
