stop mouse highlighting cells when moving pointer without pushinganything

Hello. I occasionally get into a situation where whenever I move the mouse
it highlights cells and I can't do anything else. Pressing escape or a mouse
button (or pressing any other key it seems) does not stop this effect and I
am forced to do a ctrl-alt-del and end the Excel task so I can load Excel
again to get it back to normal (losing all changes etc). Last time it
happened I was trying to do alt-t,p to protect the sheet when it began.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

ben wrote:
> Hello. I occasionally get into a situation where whenever I move the
> mouse it highlights cells and I can't do anything else. Pressing escape
> or a mouse button (or pressing any other key it seems) does not stop
> this effect and I am forced to do a ctrl-alt-del and end the Excel task
> so I can load Excel again to get it back to normal (losing all changes
> etc). Last time it happened I was trying to do alt-t,p to protect the
> sheet when it began.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

Slight correction to the above. It is happening every time I load Excel as
soon as I push the mouse button on a cell - everything freezes except for
allowing me to drag the mouse pointer to highlight adjecent cells. I can
flip to other applications but can't work in Excel. Please help!!!

ben,

The F8 key is often responsible for this.
"Ext" will show in the Status Bar near the clock when it is activated.
The key toggles off and on.

Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA


"ben" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:%[email protected]...
Hello. I occasionally get into a situation where whenever I move the mouse
it highlights cells and I can't do anything else. Pressing escape or a mouse
button (or pressing any other key it seems) does not stop this effect and I
am forced to do a ctrl-alt-del and end the Excel task so I can load Excel
again to get it back to normal (losing all changes etc). Last time it
happened I was trying to do alt-t,p to protect the sheet when it began.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

Somehow it started working again after I flipped back to it after writing
the newsgroup message (I waited to kill it), but next time it happens I will
try your advise - thanks for your quick response.



Jim Cone wrote:
> ben,
>
> The F8 key is often responsible for this.
> "Ext" will show in the Status Bar near the clock when it is activated.
> The key toggles off and on.
>
> Jim Cone
> San Francisco, USA
>
>
> "ben" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:%[email protected]...
> Hello. I occasionally get into a situation where whenever I move the mouse
> it highlights cells and I can't do anything else. Pressing escape or a mouse
> button (or pressing any other key it seems) does not stop this effect and I
> am forced to do a ctrl-alt-del and end the Excel task so I can load Excel
> again to get it back to normal (losing all changes etc). Last time it
> happened I was trying to do alt-t,p to protect the sheet when it began.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.