This happens because, somehow, the Scroll Lock has been enabled, and you need to turn off the scroll lock for things to work as expected in Excel. In this short tutorial, I will show you a couple of methods to quickly turn off the Scroll Lock in Excel.
How to Know that Scroll Lock is Enabled?
Before I tell you how to turn off the scroll lock in Excel, I must tell you how to identify whether it is enabled or disabled. If the scroll lock is turned on, you should be able to see the text Scroll Lock appear in the status bar in an Excel workbook (as shown below). If you see the word ‘Scroll Lock’ in the status bar, you can be 100% sure that the scroll lock is enabled. If you don’t see the word Scroll Lock in the status bar, right-click on the status bar and make sure the option Scroll Lock is checked. If it is checked, and you still don’t see the word Scroll lock in the status bar, you can rest assured that Scroll Lock is turned off. Note: Another reliable way to know that the scroll lock has been enabled is to try using the arrow key and see if the cursor moves. if instead of the cursor, you see the entire sheet moving, there’s a good chance that the scroll lock is turned on.
How to Turn Off Scroll in Excel (Windows)
Scroll lock is not an Excel thing – rather it’s an operating system thing (such as Windows or Mac) So the process of turning off the scroll look in Excel would happen entirely outside of Excel.
Disable Scroll Lock Using the Keyboard
The easiest way to turn off the scroll lock in Excel is by using the scroll lock key on your keyboard. If the layout of your keyboard is similar to the one shown above, the Scroll Lock key is likely to be in between the Print Screen key and the Pause/Break key. In keyboards like these, you will also notice that there is a Scroll Lock light which would be turned green if the scroll lock is enabled, and it would be turned off if the scroll lock is disabled.
What if I Don’t have the Scroll Lock Key on my Keyboard?
If you’re using a laptop or a smaller keyboard, there’s a possibility that you may not have the scroll lock key on your keyboard. For example, below is an image of my Dell laptop (that I’m currently using to write this article), and it does not have the scroll lock key if you’re using a Dell keyboard, use the below shortcut to turn on or off the scroll lock in Excel: Hold the function key and then press the S key. For an HP laptop, you can use the below shortcut: And if you can’t figure out the key combination in your keyboard, no worries. Use the method I cover next (which uses the on-screen keyboard to turn off the scroll lock)
Disable Scroll Lock Using the On-Screen Keyboard
Below are the steps to open the on-screen keyboard and turn off the scroll lock: If the Scroll Lock is already enabled, you will notice that the ScrLk key appears in a slightly different shade of color. And once the scroll lock has been turned off, the ScrLk key will be of the same color as that of other keys on the keyboard.
How to Turn Off Scroll in Excel (Mac)
If you’re using Excel or Mac, you won’t see the scroll lock status in the status bar. However, if you use your arrow keys and do not see the cursor moving (or you do not see the cell address change in the name box), you can safely assume that the scroll lock has been enabled.
With Extended Mac Keyboard
If you are using the extended mac keyboard (that has the numeric keypad), you can toggle the scroll lock setting by using the F14 key. If you have the Function keys enabled on your system, you can press the F14 key to turn off or turn on the scroll lock. If the Fn keys are not enabled, you can use the fn + F14 key combination (hold the Fn key and press the F14 key). And if there is no fn key on your keyboard, try using Shift + F14. There is also a possibility that the settings in your system are different, and Shift + F14 doesn’t work. Try using the Command, Option, or Control key instead of the Shift key.
With Compact/Short Mac Keyboards
If you use a MacBook that does not have an extended keyboard, you will not have the F14 key. In that case, you can use the below keyboard shortcut to turn on or off the scroll lock in Excel. So these are methods you can use to quickly enable or disable the crawl lock in Excel in Excel. Since the settings and layout of keyboards in Windows and Mac are different, you will have to use different key combinations to toggle the scroll lock setting. Other Excel articles you may also like:
Adjust Scroll Bar Maximum Value based on a Cell Value in Excel How to Create a Scroll Bar in Excel How to Zoom-in and Zoom-Out in Excel (Shortcuts) Excel Freeze Panes: Use it to Lock Row/Column Headers
