If you use Microsoft Excel, then you know that it can be a bit of a pain to have to keep track of how many lines are in a column and how many columns are in a row. This is because Excel keeps track of the number of lines in each column and row, but not the number of columns and rows. To make things more complicated, Excel also keeps track of the number of sheets in a workbook. So if you want to scroll through your workbook, you have to keep track of which sheet is currently being used and scroll down on that sheet until you reach the bottom or until your hand gets tired. There is an easy way to solve this problem, though it may not be popular with everyone. In Microsoft Excel, there is a feature called “scroll lock.” Scroll lock means that when you hit return or spacebar on your keyboard, Excel will stop scrolling and will instead show you the current page number (or current sheet if it’s been set as the active sheet). This is great for keeping your hands free while you’re working. Unfortunately, there are some people who don’t like this feature because they feel that it makes scrolling through their workbooks difficult and slows down their computer. If you’re one of these people, then there’s an easy way to turn off scroll lock in Microsoft Excel without having to go into individual sheets or pages. All you need to do is open up Microsoft Excel and click on the “Options” button at the top left corner. From here, select “Scroll Lock.” Now that scroll lock has been turned off, your workbooks will be much easier to navigate and will stay Scroll Lock-free even when they’re being used multiple times at once!
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What Does Enabling and Disabling Scroll Lock Do in Excel?
When you disable Scroll Lock and press the arrow keys, Excel lets you move between cells in your spreadsheet. For example, if you press the Down Arrow key, you go down a cell in your worksheet. This is usually the default behavior and allows for quick editing.
If you enable Scroll Lock, on the other hand, Excel lets you scroll your entire worksheet instead of individual cells. For example, if you press the Right Arrow key, your entire worksheet scrolls to the right.
Depending on what feature you feel comfortable using, you can keep Scroll Lock enabled or disabled on your computer.
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Enable or Disable Scroll Lock When Using Excel
One way to toggle Scroll Lock on Windows is to press the dedicated Scroll Lock key on your keyboard. This key is usually located in the top-first row of your keyboard, to the right of the Print Screen key.
When you press the key, you’ll see the Scroll Lock light turn on on your keyboard (if your keyboard has one). This indicates the option is enabled. To turn off Scroll Lock, press the same key again.
On a MacBook, you can use the key combination Fn+Shift+F12 to toggle scroll lock.
Toggle Scroll Lock Without a Keyboard
If your keyboard doesn’t offer a dedicated Scroll Lock key, use the on-screen keyboard to enable or disable the feature. Open that keyboard by accessing the “Start” menu, searching for “On-Screen Keyboard”, and selecting the app in the search results.
When you see the virtual keyboard, to activate Scroll Lock, click the ScrLk button. It will turn blue indicating the lock is enabled.
To deactivate the lock, click the same key again.
And that’s all there is to using the Scroll Lock in Microsoft’s spreadsheet program. We hope you find it useful.
Did you know you can remap the Scroll Lock button to make it even more useful?
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