# Microsoft Excel 2007 highlights multiple cells



## biz_kid1 (Jun 5, 2008)

I have an ongoing issue...various spreadsheets (none in particular...could be one or two or all of them) will start taking on this behavior for no apparent reason: when you click an individual cell, it highlights that cell plus usually two to the right of it. Reformatting by using the format painter from an unaffected cell (if you can find one at that point that hasn't been affected) usually corrects it but it's time-consuming to manually go back and reformat each affected cell. What causes this behavior and how can I stop it? Or is there an easier fix for it? TIA!


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## biz_kid1 (Jun 5, 2008)

Similar posts of interest, but not answering the question:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...=en-us-excel&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=en-us&m=1&p=1 
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...=en-us-excel&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=en-us&m=1&p=1

Suggested workarounds are as follows:

1. Try tapping the wheel of scroll mouse, if applicable.

2. Try changing the page view from Page Layout to any other View option: View tab > Normal

3. Close the spreadsheet, open again and see if behavior still exists.

4. Close Excel, open the spreadsheet and see if behavior still exists.

5. If cell still selects multiple cells, up keyboard up/down/left/right arrows to navigate away and then back to cell, then click in the formula bar to edit

6. If it says EXT or Extend Selection in the bottom left corner of Excel, then it is in Extended mode - try tapping the F8 key once

7. Try zooming out then clicking the cell selection again: View tab > Zoom > Edit % in Custom field > Click OK

Still waiting on Microsoft to acknowledge this is an actual issue and offer a resolution, but for kicks, I have a Dell wireless keyboard that uses Microsoft's IntelliType Pro driver (Driver Version: 5.1.2600.2180) and a Dell corded wheel/scroll mouse that I guess uses the same as well on Windows XP Pro SP2!


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## biz_kid1 (Jun 5, 2008)

*bump*


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## Beinhower (Aug 27, 2008)

Here are a couple of things I found out.

1) When you click a cell and hold, if you move the cursor above the cell while holding the button, you can get just the cell/cells you want.

2) If you click really fast you get just the cell you want.

To me this all seemed like a cursor position recognition problem. I did a couple of tests, and found that when you don't have the page maximized, it works just fine.


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## dupczak (Nov 16, 2009)

Try changing the Workbook View to Normal from Page Layout. This trick took care of this problem for me.


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