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Ctrl + Left Click Cell = Darken [Excel 2016]

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    Ctrl + Left Click Cell = Darken [Excel 2016]

    When I hold down the Ctrl key and left click a cell it darkens (as if fill shaded) and on further clicks on that same cell darkens even further to black. I can do this on multiple cells if I keep the Ctrl held down. If I click in any cell when I let the Ctrl up, all those "shaded" cells return to normal conditions. What is going on here? I tried searching everywhere for answers and could find none or at least none that made any sense to me. Forgive me if this was already addressed here as I could not find it using the forum search.

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    D

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    Administrator FDibbins's Avatar
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    Re: Ctrl + Left Click Cell = Darken [Excel 2016]

    Interesting, I have never done that, so have never seen it. I admit that I have no idea what it is supposed to do though. I will push this to the other experts for their input.
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    Re: Ctrl + Left Click Cell = Darken [Excel 2016]

    Doesn't happen in my version - Excel 365. It switches on and off as expected.

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    Re: Ctrl + Left Click Cell = Darken [Excel 2016]

    Ali, running 2016, and I can replicate the situation, The more I ctrl-left click, the darker the cell becomes. If I just click any other cell, the "shading" disappears
    If, while holding the ctrl, I click another cell, I can replicate the shading again, with the 1st (or previous, if I do it a number of times) staying shaded

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    Re: Ctrl + Left Click Cell = Darken [Excel 2016]

    The darkening you're seeing in the earlier version of Excel is just showing that you've selected the cell multiple times. The way you can select non-contiguous ranges with the Ctrl key has changed; it used to be that you could never 'unselect' a cell or range by selecting it again, in fact it used to select it again. Not being able to unselect a was a pain because if you made a mistake selecting non-contiguous ranges you'd have to start again. Now if you unselect a range by re-selecting it, it's more friendly.
    If you select a cell multiple times when holding the Ctrl key, then go to the Immediate pane of the vb editor and type:
    ?selection.address
    and press Enter you will see the likes of:
    $E$6,$E$6,$E$6,$E$6,$E$6

    If you select a non-contiguous range of cells, let go of the Ctrl key, then repeatedly press the Enter key, you can see the active cell changing, moving through your selected cells in the order you selected them. Previously, had you selected the same cell mutiple times the active cell wouldn't change until you'd pressed Enter the number of times you'd selected that cell. Now, because you can no longer select a cell multiple times (because it toggles between being selected/not selected) the active cell always moves to another cell on repeated presses of the Enter key.

    edit later:
    Just did an internet search and the first two results were:
    Ctrl+Select in Excel Gets Smart - Peltier Tech Blog
    https://peltiertech.com/ctrl-select-excel-gets-smart/
    How to deselect cells from selected ranges in Excel - Microsoft Tech Community
    https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/...el/ba-p/148000

    So you can still 'multiselect' cells. Ugh.
    Last edited by p45cal; 11-21-2020 at 10:37 AM.

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