Moving arrows in excel

This post and video contain lots of tips for moving your charts and shapes with the arrow keys.  This is very useful when you need to arrange and align multiple shapes on your worksheet.  I also have a free Chart Alignment add-in that allows you to move the objects inside a chart (titles, labels, legends) with the arrow keys and alignment buttons.

Video

Move Chart with Arrow Keys

Typically when you select a chart with your mouse, the box surrounding the chart looks like the following.

When the chart is selected like this, nothing happens when you press the arrow keys to try and move the chart around the worksheet.  Instead, the objects within the chart are cycled through and selected.  Not what we want.

Solution #1

Hold Ctrl and Left Click the chart –  This selects the shape object that the chart resides in.  Circles will appear on each corner of the chart.

The chart can now be moved around on the sheet with the arrow keys, making it easy to align it with other shapes, charts, or cells in your worksheet.

Solution #2

Select multiple charts or shapes – Hold the Ctrl key and select at least two charts using left click.  The bounding box will still look like the same as when you only have one chart selected, but you are able to move the charts with the arrow keys.

Move or Create a Shape Inside a Chart

Moving shapes inside a chart can get a bit confusing.  Shapes, such as a text box or rectangle, can reside in two places:

• either inside the chart object,
• or on the worksheet (outside of the chart).

The confusing part is that a shape residing outside the chart on the worksheet can be placed on top of the chart.  This makes it look like the shape is inside the chart even though it is not.  In this case, when you move the chart, the shape will NOT move with it unless you have both the shape and the chart selected.

A shape located inside the chart will move with the chart.  This makes it easier to move and align the chart because you don’t have to worry about selecting multiple objects when doing the alignment.

There are two ways to get a shape inside a chart:

1. Create the shape inside the chart – First select the chart so the bounding box appears around it, then draw the shape inside the chart object area (Insert tab
   > Shapes menu).
2. Paste a shape inside the chart – Cut or Copy an existing shape on your worksheet, then select the chart and paste the shape.  This will put the shape inside the chart.

Move Shape Inside Chart with Arrow Keys

Now that your shape is residing inside your chart, you can use the arrow keys to move it around and align it with the other objects in your chart (title, axis, legend, etc.)  See instructions below the screencast.

To move a shape inside the chart with arrow keys:

1. Ctrl+Left Click the border of the chart so you get the circles on the corners.
   
2. Then Ctrl+Left Click the shape inside the chart.  You will notice that the circles remain on the top left corner of the chart.
   
3. Keyboard arrows are now enabled so you can move and align your shape (text box) within the chart.

Conclusion

You should now be able to get all your charts and shapes lined up to perfection using the incremental movements of the arrow keys.  This is very useful if you read my post on Panel Charts as an alternative to Stacked Charts and want to create panel charts.  In a future post I will share more tips and shortcuts for aligning and viewing your charts.

What are some shortcuts you use to align your charts?

Pressing an arrow key while SCROLL LOCK is on will scroll one row up or down or one column left or right.
Use the arrow keys to move through a worksheet.

Why can’t I use my arrow keys in Excel?

One of the common reasons why the arrow keys don’t work in Excel is because you’ve enabled the scroll lock feature on your computer. For as long as it remains enabled, the keys won’t do what they’re supposed to do.Simply press the scroll lock button on your keyboard and the lock will be disabled.

How do I unlock scroll lock?

Turn off Scroll Lock

1. If your keyboard does not have a Scroll Lock key, on your computer, click Start > Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard.
2. Click the On Screen Keyboard button to turn it on.
3. When the on-screen keyboard appears on your screen, click the ScrLk button.

How do I unlock arrows in Excel?

To do that, press the Scroll Lock key (labeled as ScrLk) on your keyboard.
Use the arrow keys to move through a worksheet.

How do I unlock scroll lock in Excel?

To turn off scroll lock, execute the following step(s).

1. Press the Scroll Lock key (Scroll Lock or ScrLk) on your keyboard.
2. Click Start > Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard > Use the On-Screen Keyboard (or press the Windows logo key + CTRL + O).
3. Click the ScrLk button.

How do I enable scrolling in Excel?

Click File > Options. On the Advanced tab, scroll to the Display section. Select Show horizontal scroll bar and Show vertical scroll bar, and then click OK.

What is shortcut for Scroll Lock?

The official Microsoft shortcut for Scroll Lock is Shift + F14.

How do I jump to a row in Excel?

Since Ctrl+G is the macro to open the Go To window, it is easy for me to remember Ctrl+Shift+G to run the macro to jump to a row or column. You can use any keyboard shortcut you want though. It does not have to be Ctrl+Shift+G for this to work.

How do I enable scrolling?

If your pad does not appear to allow scrolling, turn the feature on through your driver settings.

1. Click the Windows “Start” button.
2. Click the “Device Settings” tab.
3. Click “Settings.”
4. Click “Scrolling” in the sidebar.
5. Click the check boxes labeled “Enable vertical scrolling” and “Enable horizontal scrolling.”

Why can’t I see the bottom scroll bar in Excel?

Click the File tab. Click Options, and then click the Advanced category. Under Display options for this workbook, clear or select the Show horizontal scroll bar check box and Show vertical scroll bar check box to hide or display the scroll bars.

Where is scroll lock key?

Sometimes abbreviated as ScLk, ScrLk, or Slk, the Scroll Lock key is found on a computer keyboard, often located close to the pause key. The Scroll Lock key was initially intended to be used in conjunction with the arrow keys to scroll through the contents of a text box.

How do I move the cursor in Excel?

Press the Home key to move to cell A4. Pressing Home moves the cursor to the beginning of the current row, which in this case, is row 4. Press the Page Down key.
In This Article.

How do you jump through a cell in Excel?

Go To Functionality

1. STEP 1: Double click inside your Excel formula.
2. STEP 2: Select the formula argument that you want to edit with your mouse.
3. STEP 3: Press F5 which will bring up the Go To dialogue box and press OK.
4. STEP 4: This will take you to the referenced cell/range.

How do I use the scroll button on my laptop?

You can scroll using your touchpad using two fingers.

1. Open the Activities overview and start typing Mouse & Touchpad.
2. Click on Mouse & Touchpad to open the panel.
3. In the Touchpad section, make sure the Touchpad switch is set to on.
4. Switch the Two-finger Scrolling switch to on.

How do you scroll down on a laptop?

Click the left button under your touch pad. It will click the arrow and make the page move down. Alternatively, you can grab the scroll bar (the gray bar between arrows) by clicking the left button, holding it, then dragging the bar up and down the page.

How do I make my scroll wheel click?

Many mice and some touchpads have a middle mouse button. On a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can usually press directly down on the scroll wheel to middle-click. If you don’t have a middle mouse button, you can press the left and right mouse buttons at the same time to middle-click.

Why is my scroll bar not showing?

Word The scroll bar disappears in a document if the mouse is not moved for a few seconds, or if the mouse cursor is moved away from the open document.If the vertical scroll bar disappears completely in Word, check File / Options / Advanced. Make sure the box is checked to Show vertical scroll bar.

Why has my scroll bar disappeared?

Scroll bars may disappear when a page element that holds content expands to accommodate excess content.Clicking the browser window’s “Maximize” button will expand the window width to the monitor’s width, which causes the horizontal scroll bar to disappear.

Want to fix the arrow keys in Excel? It’s probably one of the easiest fixes, so here’s how to do it!

Arrow keys help you move from one cell to another on an Excel spreadsheet with a single key-press. When Excel arrow keys aren’t working properly, the process can be frustrating.

With this guide, we’ll show you how to fix arrow keys not working in Excel. Let’s get started.

You won’t be able to use the arrow keys if you have a scroll lock enabled on your keyboard. So, the first fix for arrow keys not working in Excel is to turn off your scroll lock.

Look out for a light on your keyboard’s scroll lock button. If it’s on, that means the scroll lock button is enabled and that the arrow keys are not functioning as they should. The solution is to simply press the button to turn the lock off.

How to Turn Off Scroll Lock on a Keyboard

To turn off the scroll lock on a Windows computer, simply press the Scroll lock key.

It is usually located in the control keys section of the keyboard, above the arrow keys, or on the right side of the function keys.

On a Mac, press the F14 or the Shift + F14 key combination. If the scroll lock does not go off, try pressing Command + F14.

How to Turn Off Scroll Lock Without a Keyboard

These days, most computers have keyboards without scroll locks. But you can still turn off the scroll lock without a keyboard.

For Windows Users

Windows has an on-screen keyboard feature that provides you with keys that don’t exist on your physical keyboard. To access the on-screen keyboard:

For macOS Users

If you can’t turn off the scroll lock with the keyboard commands on your physical Mac, you’ll need to run an AppleScript.

This method is not as difficult as it sounds if you follow the simple steps below:

• Click on Launchpad, search for TextEdit and open it.
• Create a new document by clicking on the File menu and select New.
• Copy the following code and paste it into your document.

 set returnedItems to (display dialog “Press OK to send scroll lock keypress to Microsoft Excel or press Quit” with title “Excel Scroll-lock Fix” buttons {“Quit”, “OK”} default button 2)
set buttonPressed to the button returned of returnedItems



  


                       
  



if buttonPressed is “OK” then
tell application “Microsoft Excel”
activate
end tell
tell application “System Events”
key code 107 using {shift down}
end tell
activate
display dialog “Scroll Lock key sent to Microsoft Excel” with title “Mac Excel Scroll-lock Fix” buttons {“OK”}
end if



  


                       
  



 

• Save the file by pressing the Command+S keys.
• Name the file FixExcelKeys.applescript.
• Now, open your Excel spreadsheet.
• Double-click the FixExcelKeys.applescript. This will open the script. Click the Run button at the top of the window, and it should fix the arrow keys not working in Excel.

2. Enable Sticky Keys

Another way to fix arrow keys not working in Excel is to enable the sticky keys features on your Windows computer. The sticky keys are not directly related to the arrow keys or your Excel application, but you could try toggling it to see whether it fixes the issue for you.

If your arrow keys aren’t moving cells in Excel, run a quick test to see if they’re working in other programs. If they are, it’s possible that the issue is with Excel itself.

Excel has a baked-in Scroll Lock feature as well. If it’s turned on, it might be the reason why your cursor is not moving in Excel. Thankfully, it’s a pretty easy fix.

1. Launch Microsoft Excel, and then open a new or existing spreadsheet.
2. Right-click on the Status bar, which is at the bottom of your worksheet. If you’re having trouble finding it, look for features such as the zoom slider and Page Layout.
3. From the Status bar menu, locate Scroll Lock. If the feature has an On status next to it, click on it once to turn it off.
   

4. Exit Formula Entry Mode

If you find that your cursor is not moving in Excel, you might be in Excel’s formula entry mode. This means you’ve selected a cell, typed =, and then started typing a function. The selected cell in the formula will change if you press the arrow key in this scenario, but the arrow keys will not control the cursor in the worksheet.

To reactivate the arrows, just press Enter and then Ctrl-Z to undo the formula and exit entry mode. While we’re on the subject of formulas, here’s a detailed cheat sheet of useful Microsoft Excel formulas to help you get work done faster.

5. Disable Add-Ins

Excel add-ins are useful, but sometimes, they might cause some setbacks while using the application. You might need to disable any Excel Add-ins that you previously installed to use the Excel arrow key scroll.

You can disable Add-ins in Excel easily by following these steps:

1. Launch Excel on your computer.
2. Click the File menu and select Options from the left sidebar.
3. Click on Add-ins on the left sidebar to see your Excel Add-ins settings.
4. From the drop-down menu, select Excel Add-ins and click Go.
5. Choose all the Add-ins and click the OK button.
6. Deselect all the add-ins and click on OK.
7. Repeat the above steps for all the options in the drop-down menu in order to disable all your Excel add-ins.
8. Go back to your worksheet and try using your arrow keys.

6. Unfreeze Columns

If you’re looking at cells within a group of frozen rows or columns, you may think the arrow keys have stopped working. But this is not the case, and you don’t have to unfreeze those panes to fix it.

You could just try zooming out to allow the use of the arrow keys. That way, you’ll get a fuller view of the spreadsheet, and you can easily use the arrow keys in unlocked areas.

Overcome Productivity Obstacles in Microsoft Excel

These solutions above should make it easier for you to navigate your Excel sheets. Don’t stop learning new things about Microsoft Excel and how you can use it for more effective productivity.