Locked scrolling in excel

The scroll lock in excel changes the way one navigates in a worksheet. When the scroll lock is turned on, the arrow keys allow scrolling through the excel sheet without changing the active cell. When the scroll lock is turned off, the arrow keys allow moving from one cell to the other.

For example, let us observe the following two situations. The tasks performed and the outcomes in both situations are given.

Situation 1–Scroll lock is enabled (on or locked)

1. Select cell C4. Enable the scroll lock by pressing the Scroll Lock key from a virtual or physical keyboard.
2. Next, press the right arrow key and it allows scrolling to the right of the worksheet.

Press the right arrow key twice and the columns on the left (columns A and B) of the active cell (C4) can no longer be seen. This is because the right arrow key has caused a right-side movement of the scroll bar.

Even though there is a movement, the active cell (cell C4) remains selected. Hence, the active cell does not change in this situation.

Situation 2–Scroll lock is disabled (off or unlocked)

1. Select cell C4. Disable the scroll lock by pressing the Scroll Lock key (one more time) from a virtual or physical keyboard.
2. Next, press the right arrow key and it shifts the selection to cell D4.

Cell D4 becomes the active cell by pressing the right arrow key. This is the usual functioning of the four arrow keys in the absence of the scroll lock. Hence, the active cell does change in this situation.

How to Scroll Lock in Excel?

The scroll lock is a toggle key available on all virtual (on-screen) keyboards and some physical keyboards. Toggling implies that the scroll lock can be switched on and off with the pressing of the key. By default, the scroll lock is disabled (turned off) in Excel.

The Scroll Lock key is labeled “Scroll Lock,” “ScrLk,” “ScLk” or “Slk” depending on the kind of keyboard being used. The Scroll Lock key works similar to the Caps Lock or Num Lock key.

The status barAs the name implies, the status bar displays the current status in the bottom right corner of Excel; it is a customizable bar that can be customized to meet the needs of the user.read more of Excel can be customized to indicate whether the scroll lock is on or off.

You are free to use this image on your website, templates, etc, Please provide us with an attribution linkArticle Link to be Hyperlinked
For eg:
Source: Scroll Lock in Excel (wallstreetmojo.com)

The Functions of the Arrow Keys (With and Without the Scroll Lock)

The arrow keys perform the following functions when the scroll lock is turned on:

• Move one row up or down and one column to the left or right by pressing the respective arrow key.
• Move quickly to the different areas of a worksheet by pressing “Ctrl” and the respective arrow key simultaneously.

The arrow keys perform the following functions when the scroll lock is turned off:

• Move up, down, left or right from one cell to the other by pressing the respective arrow key.
• Move to the last cell of a blank range by pressing “Ctrl” and the respective arrow key together.
• Select a range of cells horizontally or vertically by pressing the “Shift” and the respective arrow key simultaneously.

Note: When the scroll lock in excel is turned on, the arrow keys cannot be used to select a cell. In such cases, a cell can be selected by using the mouse.

You can download this Scroll Lock Excel Template here – Scroll Lock Excel Template

How to Find out Whether Scroll Lock in Excel is on or off?

The methods to find out whether the scroll lock in Excel is on or off are listed as follows:

Method 1: By a beep sound

When the Scroll Lock key is turned on or off, a beep sound is made by the device. For this, make the following settings in Windows 10:

1. From the Start menu, click “settings.”
2. The “settings” window opens. Click “ease of access.”
3. Click “keyboard” from the list of options shown on the left side of the screen.
4. Under the section “toggle keys,” select “hear a tone when you press Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock.”
5. Close the “settings” window.

Going forward, whenever one presses the Scroll Lock key, a beep sound will be produced by the device. So, the user will be informed if this key is turned on or off.

The succeeding image shows the Scroll Lock key within a red circle.

Note 1: The Ease of Access Center can also be accessed from the Control Panel of Windows 10. Click “make the keyboard easier to use.” Make the required changes and click “Ok” or “apply” to save them.

Note 2: In Windows 7, click “start” and type “ease of access center” (without the double quotation marks) in the search box. Make the desired changes in “make the keyboard easier to use.” Click “Ok” to proceed.

By enabling the settings listed under “method 1,” a beep sound will also be made if the Caps Lock or the Num Lock keys are turned on.

The Caps Lock key usually has a light indicator which is shown (within the red circle) in the following image. Turn on this key and the light is switched on. If the Caps Lock key is turned off, the light is switched off.

Method 2: By the status of the status bar

When the scroll lock in excel is turned on or off, it is reflected on the status bar of the Excel worksheet. The status bar is shown in the following image. It shows the averageAverage is the value that is used to represent the set of values of data as is the average calculated from whole data and this formula is calculated by adding all the values of the set given, denoted by summation of X and dividing it by the number of values given in set denoted by N.read more, sumThe SUM function in excel adds the numerical values in a range of cells. Being categorized under the Math and Trigonometry function, it is entered by typing “=SUM” followed by the values to be summed. The values supplied to the function can be numbers, cell references or ranges.read more, count, etc. of two or more selected cells.

Under this method, there can be the following two cases:

Case 1–Scroll lock in Excel is turned on

When the scroll lock is turned on, the status bar of Excel shows the status “scroll lock” at the left side. The same is shown in the following image.

Note: If the scroll lock is turned on, but is not indicated (on the status bar), one needs to customize the status bar. For this, right-click the status bar and check (tick) the option “scroll lock.” Once ticked, the status bar reflects the status “scroll lock.”

Case 2–Scroll lock in Excel is turned off

When the scroll lock is turned off, the “scroll lock” status disappears and the arrow keys begin to function normally. The same is shown in the following image.

Method 3: By a color change of the key

When the scroll lock is turned on using a virtual keyboard, the key turns blue or white. The virtual keyboard showing the “ScrLk” key is displayed (on the right side) in the following image. Currently, the scroll lock feature is disabled, so the key is appearing in black.

How to Turn Off the Scroll Lock in Excel?

The methods of turning off the scroll lock in Excel are listed as follows:

Method 1: Using a physical keyboard

Press the Scroll Lock key on the physical keyboard to turn it off. Once done, the corresponding light (if any) of the toggle key turns off.

Method 2: Using an on-screen keyboard

A virtual keyboard is a visual representation of a keyboard. It consists of all the standard keys of a regular keyboard. These keys can be used with the help of the mouse.

One must use the virtual keyboard if the Scroll Lock key is not present on the physical keyboard.

Frequently Asked Questions

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to the Scroll Lock in Excel. Here we provide step-by-step instructions on how to turn on (enable) or turn off (disable) the Scroll Lock key in Excel. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles–

• Excel Word Cloud using VBA
• Create Scroll Bars in Excel
• Top Keyboard Shortcuts in Excel
• How to Column Lock in Excel?

What is Scroll Lock?

Usually, the arrow keys will move you one cell at a time in whatever direction you wish. However, when Scroll Lock is enabled, the worksheet is «scrolled» instead. The up and down arrow keys scroll one row up and down, and the right and left arrow keys scroll one column right and left. The active cell never changes.

If you don’t understand what’s going on, this can be quite distressing

Fortunately, the Scroll Lock setting is a toggle, much like Caps Lock. If you have a Scroll Lock key on your keyboard, just press it to toggle Scroll Lock off. Done.

No key for Scroll Lock?

Unfortunately, it’s harder to disable Scroll Lock if your keyboard doesn’t have a Scroll Lock key. How can you press a key you don’t have?

The «trick» is to figure out how to send the equivalent of the Scroll Lock keystroke to Excel. The rest of this article explains how to do that on both Mac and Windows.

Is Scroll Lock really on?

First, make sure Scroll Lock is really enabled. You can do this by working with the status bar, the name for the bottom edge of the Excel Window, which displays various information about the state of the current worksheet.

On Windows, the status bar will display Scroll Lock if Scroll Lock is toggled on, and if the Scroll Lock status is enabled in the status bar. If Scroll Lock status is not enabled in the status bar, it might be toggled on and you’ll never see it.

Right click the status bar to make sure Scroll Lock status is enabled:

The Scroll Lock setting here doesn’t control Scroll Lock, it only displays Scroll Lock status.

Once you make sure that the Scroll Lock status is on, look for the Scroll lock message in the lower left.

Yes, Scroll Lock is turned on.

On a Mac, as far as I know, Scroll Lock status will not appear in the status bar of Excel 2011. (I haven’t checked Excel 2016 yet). The only way I know to verify the Scroll Lock state is to use the arrow keys and observe behavior. Try moving around with the arrow keys and watch the address in the name box (directly left of the formula bar). If the address doesn’t change, Scroll Lock is probably turned on.

Mac Excel 2011 doesn’t show scroll lock status anywhere.

How to disable Scroll Lock on Windows

If you’re using a full keyboard in Windows – one that has a Scroll Lock key – simply press the key to disable. You should see the Scroll Lock message disappear from the status bar and then be able to move around normally.

If your keyboard does not have a Scroll Lock key, you can access a virtual keyboard in Windows via Start > All Programs > Accessories > Ease of Access > On-Screen Keyboard.

The On-Screen Keyboard in Windows, Scroll Lock key in white

Once the keyboard is displayed, make sure Excel is the active application and click the ScrLk key. That should do it. 

How to disable Scroll Lock on a Mac

The official Microsoft shortcut for Scroll Lock is Shift + F14. If you have an extended keyboard with an F14 key, try that first.

If you have a Macbook Pro, or other machine with a smaller keyboard that does not have extended keys, you’ll have to go a little deeper.

You’d think that you could go System Preferences > Keyboard, then enable an extended virtual keyboard, then use that to press F14. But, after an hour so of fiddling around, I couldn’t get it to work, and I’m not sure it can be done.

It seems that the Mac is «aware» of the keyboard currently attached, and uses this information to display the virtual keyboard. If you know a way to enable an extended virtual keyboard (on a Mac that doesn’t have one attached), please let me know.

Virtual Keyboard, a commercial freeware utility by Corallo Software (14 day trial) seems to work, but I did very little testing.

AppleScript to the rescue

On Macs, AppleScript is a built-in scripting language that can be used to automate applications and other general tasks. One of the things you can do with AppleScript is send keystrokes to an application.

While researching this problem, I ran into a nice AppleScript by Damien Clark here. However, I couldn’t get the script work like I expected. I could enable Scroll Lock with the script. But when I ran the script again, Scroll Lock wasn’t disabled.

At least not without checking the «use all F1, F2, etc keys as standard function keys setting» checkbox in the Mac’s keyboard preferences…which made the process pretty confusing.

So, after a bit more investigation (read: a few hours flailing about), I adapted the script to send the equivalent of fn + shift + F14, with a small delay. This works on my 2015 Macbook Pro reliably to turn Scroll Lock on and off.

-- Workaround to enable and disable Scroll Lock in Excel on the Mac
-- For Macs that don't have an F14 key available
-- Tested on 2015 MBP running Mac OS 10.10.5 and Excel 2011 (14.5.8)
-- Dave Bruns, December 10, 2015

activate application "Microsoft Excel"
delay 0.5 -- time to release modifier keys
tell application "System Events"
    key code 63 -- fn key
    key code 107 using {shift down}
end tell

To use this script, run the AppleScript Editor, create a new file, and paste in the code above. Then compile the script (Command + K), and run it (play button, or Command + R).

If Scroll Lock is currently on, it should be disabled.

Caution: if Scroll Lock is not currently enabled, it will be enabled, so you’ll need to run the script again to toggle it off again.