An excel sheet is a collection of cells where you keep and edit the data. Each Excel workbook may contain multiple worksheets. When Scroll Lock is turned on, you are enabled to use the arrow keys to scroll through the worksheet without changing any of the active cell. It displays Scroll Lock in the status bar. When the Scroll Lock is turned off, you can easily use the arrow keys to change the active cell. To disable the scroll lock, press the Scroll Lock key from the keyboard as ScrLk. Before you make any decision, check to see if you accidentally enabled the Scroll Lock.
What is Excel scroll lock and how to turn it off?
Usually, the arrow keys move you to one cell at a time in whatever direction you push it to. Contrary to this, when Scroll Lock is enabled, the whole of the worksheet is scrolled instead. Use The up and down keys to scroll one row up and down, and use the right and left arrow keys to scroll one column right and left. Remember that The active cell never changes. The Scroll Lock setting is a toggle, just like a Caps Lock. If you have Scroll Lock key on your keyboard, press it to toggle Scroll Lock off.
First, you need to make sure Scroll Lock is actually enabled. You can do this from the status bar, that is the name for the bottom edge of Excel Window, which displays different information about the current state of the worksheet.
On a Mac computer, Scroll Lock status doesn’t appear in the status bar of Excel. The only way to verify the Scroll Lock state is that you have to use the arrow keys and observe the behavior. Use the arrow keys to try moving around and watch the address in the name box. If the address doesn’t show any change, then the Scroll Lock is probably turned on.
Turning off Scroll Lock
To disable the scroll lock, press the Scroll Lock key from the keyboard that is often labeled as ScrLk. If your keyboard does not have a Scroll Lock key, then do the following steps:
Turn Off Excel Scroll Lock For Windows 10
If your keyboard does not have a Scroll Lock key, click on Start and then Settings and then select Ease of Access and select Keyboard.
Now Click the On-Screen Keyboard button to turn it on.
It will make the on-screen keyboard appear on your screen, click the ScrLk button from there.
Turn Off Excel Scroll Lock For Windows 8.1
If you don’t have a Scroll Lock key on your keyboard, then click Start from the desktop and then press CTRL+C to display the Charms bar.
- Click on Change PC Settings.
- Select Ease of Access and then select Keyboard.
- Click the On Screen Keyboard icon to turn it on.
- When it shows the on-screen keyboard on your screen, press the ScrLk
Turn Off Excel Scroll Lock For Windows 7
If your keyboard does not have a ScrollLock key, then from your computer, go to Start menu and All Programs then select Accessories and then Ease of Access and press click on On-Screen Keyboard.
When the on-screen keyboard appears, click the scrLk button.
Turn off Excel Scroll Lock on a Mac
The Microsoft shortcut key for Scroll Lock is Shift + F14. If in case you have an extended keyboard with more keys such as F14 key, press that first. If you are using a Macbook Pro, or other devices with a smaller keyboard that does not have any extended keys, you will have to work a bit more.
You would think that you can go to System Preferences and then to Keyboard, then enable an extended keyboard, and then use that to press F14. But, its just a waste of time, it doesn’t work like that. It seems like the Mac is “aware” of the keyboard currently attached, so it uses this information to display the virtual keyboard. So it doesn’t work on a mac just Incase.
Troubleshooting the scroll lock
If you feel that Scroll Lock is turned on, and it does not appear in the Excel status bar, then it may be because the status bar is customized to hide the Scroll Lock status. So to check that if this is the case, right-click on the Excel status bar, and look for the checkbox on the left of the Scroll Lock. If the check is not visible, then the Scroll Lock will not appear in the Excel status bar. Simply you have to check the box to have the status appear on the status bar.
Conclusion
Is this discussion we see that what is a scroll lock and what are its function in an excel sheet and how it may affect our work if turned off or on. We discussed 2 ways to solve this if the scroll lock is turned on and the sheets misbehave, we saw the methods on different operating systems such as windows of different versions as well as on a mac too. Troubleshooting was also an option in case other solutions like on-screen keyboard didn’t work out for you. If these solutions work for you do leave a reply and tell us how you solved it.
You can contact us on our email or the number provided, we will review your feedback and respond to it asap. Ask for more solutions if you have any questions. We will clear your doubts and problems for you.
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FAQ’s
How do I display or hide scroll bars in a workbook??
By default, the horizontal and vertical scroll bar are displayed in Excel workbook so that you are enabled to scroll through the data in its worksheet. Whatsoever, you can turn scroll bars on or off when needed. You need to Click the File tab and then Click on Options, and then click on the Advanced category. Under the Display options for this workbook, you need to clear or select the Show horizontal scroll bar checkbox and Show the vertical scroll bar checkbox to hide or display the scroll bars.
My keyboard doesn’t have a scroll lock button what to do?
If your keyboard does not have any ScrollLock key, then you need to go to the Start menu and select All Programs, then select Accessories, and then Ease of Access option and press click on On-Screen Keyboard. This will show an on-screen keyboard from which you will be able to operate just by using a simple mouse clicks on virtual keyboard buttons on screen.
How do you lock the cells in excel sheets?
Sometimes you need to lock some cells when necessary. Follow these steps to lock cells in a worksheet:
Select the cells which you want to lock.
- From the Home tab, in your Alignment group, click on the small arrow to open the Format Cells popup window.
- Now on the Protection tab, select the Locked option check box, and then click on OK to close the popup.
- Note:“If you try these steps on worksheet or a workbook that you haven’t protected, you’ll see that the cells are already locked. This means that the cells are ready to be locked when you protect the workbook or worksheet”.
- Now on the Review tab in the ribbon, in the Changes group, you can select either Protect Sheet or Protect Workbook, and then reapply protection.