• Hi All

    Please note that at the Chandoo.org Forums there is Zero Tolerance to Spam

    Post Spam and you Will Be Deleted as a User

    Hui...

  • When starting a new post, to receive a quicker and more targeted answer, Please include a sample file in the initial post.

Focus No Longer Moves to Beginning of Next Row when pressing Enter

ozziewendy

New Member
I used to be able to enter data in a row in an Excel spreadsheet by tabbing across cells, then when I was finished and hit enter the focus would move to the first cell in the next row (or the cell in the next row underneath the one where I first started tabbing across).

So:

Start in A1, tab, tab, tab, Enter
Focus moves to B1

Now all my new spreadsheets don't behave this way. Instead, hitting Enter only moves the focus down/up/left/right one cell, depending on what option I have selected.

So:

Start in A1, tab, tab, tab, Enter
Focus moves to B4

I have found various hints on the net, but none of them really work for what I want to do.

Hint 1: make the cells a table. The trouble is, there are 20 possible cells to enter data into, but in the vast majority of cases I only want to enter into the first couple of cells in a row. I actually already have the sheet protected so only those first 20 are unlocked, but I don't want to have to tab across the entire row each time.

hint 2: Select only those cells that you are going to enter the data into. Unfortunately I have some locked columns amongst the unlocked ones, and I can't make a selection across these.

All I want is for my new spreadsheets to work in the same way as the old ones!
 
You have to select a range before you started Tabbing
ie: A1:D10

This still works in all Excel versions as far as I know
 
Unfortunately this isn't really an option for me, for 2 reasons:

1. I have some locked columns mixed in with the unlocked columns (to show calculated values such as the day of the week for the entered date) and you can't select these (for other reasons I do not want to be able to select locked columns).

2. I do not know how many columns of data I am going to complete in each row. So there are 20 enterable columns of data altogether, for most rows I am only going to enter the first 3 or 4 columns, but for some rows I will be entering all 20.

Thanks for trying anyway.

Wendy
 
I just checked and the behaviour you discuss above
"Start in A1, tab, tab, tab, Enter
Focus moves to B1
"
works on in both 2010 and 2016

Maybe check your options

upload_2017-1-19_10-54-42.png
 
ok I've created a spreadsheet from some old ones and in the process found what seems to trigger the problem. In the attached file, there is one sheet which works as I want and one that doesn't. I discovered that the problem is triggered when I protect the sheet. So the first sheet isn't protected and it works fine. The second sheet is protected and it doesn't. Unprotect that sheet and it reverts to the behaviour that I want.

So now the question is, is there some setting in the protect sheet operation that can stop this behaviour change.

Thanks for your patience.

Wendy
 

Attachments

  • Example sheet for focus move.xlsx
    12.4 KB · Views: 2
If you don't want to Allow the Select Locked Cells

Select B2:D100 or whatever range is required
Right Click and set cell s Format as:
upload_2017-1-19_13-0-56.png

Now set the Worksheet Protection
upload_2017-1-19_13-1-43.png

Now goto B2 and Tab away
At D2 press Tab, not Enter
 
Back
Top