Editing a cell

[diggeryo]

I am using Excel version 1804 64-bit and have been experiencing a weird issue for a month or two. It's not really impacting my use; it's more of just a nuisance.

Most, if not all, of the columns in the Excel file experiencing the issue are of center alignment. Before the issue started, when I would attempt to edit the contents of a cell directly in the cell, the characters I typed would appear in the center and move to the left as I typed. However, now sometimes they will instead appear all the way on the left as I'm typing and not move to the center until I hit enter.

Even weirder, though, is that sometimes the same cells that this issue occurs in will still behave as expected. I can't find any rhyme or reason why it occurs when it does happen.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it a recently introduced bug, or did I unknowingly change a setting somewhere?

[FDibbins]

Do you perhaps have scroll-lock activated?

[diggeryo]

Thanks for the reply, FDibbins. No, my scroll lock is not activated.

[FlameRetired]

Are you entering edit mode with the mouse?

I've experienced intermittent editing weirdness when my mouse was nearing failure and needed to be replaced.

[vlady]

Try this as experiment:
Select a column - go to format cell
Horizontal Alignment : right indent
Text direction: left-to-right

[diggeryo]

FlameRetired: I am using a mouse--sometimes just single clicking on the cell to select it before I start typing, and other times double clicking to enter edit mode. I'll put in a new battery to see if that helps.

vlady: Thanks. I will give that a try after I try FlameRetired's suggestion.

[FlameRetired]

If it is the mouse and a battery change fixes it ... whooo whooo!

In my case ... after numerous disassembles/cleanings (that worked for a while) I had to replace the mouse. This is apparently very common with my brand/model.

[diggeryo]

**EDIT: the steps below to reproduce error, because I missed a step**

The issue just started happening again a few minutes ago, for the first time since my last reply.

After a lot of trial and error, I determined what is causing the issue--though I'm not sure why this would cause it. And I also determined that the issue will occur on any of my PC's in any Excel file--even newly created files.

Whenever I edit a cell that already contains a negative number, the cell will edit as normal (meaning the text will display in the center as I'm editing and once I hit enter). But then once I edit another cell after that, the issue occurs.

And the only way the issue stops is when I exit the Excel file itself (though not necessarilly the whole program). Then, once I re-open the Excel file, the issue does not occur again until after I edit a cell with a negative number.

Please someone tell me if they can reproduce this. I would recommend doing the following to try...

*have Excel version 1804 64-bit
*open a new Excel file
*make one of the columns have center horizontal text alignment
*in a cell in this column, enter a non-negative number to verify editing the cell works as expected
*then enter a negative number into another cell in the same column
*then edit the cell with the negative number...i.e. if it's "-5," change it to any other number, positive or negative.
*then try to enter another item (number or text) in yet a third cell of the same column...this is when the issue should occur.

[diggeryo]

FYI--this issues might be unique to 64-bit Excel. I bought a new laptop and installed Office on it. I mistakenly installed 32-bit rather than 64-bit Office. And the issue is gone. It still occurs on the installations of 64-bit though. Oh well.