bug: cells selected as mouse moves

**urungus** · 08-28-2008, 03:11 PM

Sometimes after I select a cell in Excel 2003 it acts as if I'm holding down the left mouse button and adds to the selection every cell I move the mouse over.

The only way I can get out of it is to ctrl+alt+del and kill the app.

I've checked that sticky keys are turned off.

Is this a known issue?

Any ideas and/or suggestions would be appreciated...Thanks.

**dominicb** · 08-28-2008, 04:02 PM

Good evening urungus

Originally Posted by urungus

Is this a known issue?

When this happens is there a word in the status bar at the bottom that says "EXT". If so it is a known issue that Microsoft invented called Extend mode.

It means you've accidentally hit F8 to invoke it. Press F8 again to make it magically go away.

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/ghosting.txt

HTH

DominicB

**Cheeky Charlie** · 08-28-2008, 05:47 PM

I thought extend mode was more like shift-lock(?)

Sounds to me like a cheeky little macro...

**urungus** · 08-28-2008, 05:53 PM

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately it is not a problem with accidentally enabling Extended mode.

In extended mode, after clicking the mouse to select a cell, you have to click the mouse a second time before any more cells are selected.

With my problem, the additional cells are immediately selected as I move over them, without an additional mouse click.

**Cheeky Charlie** · 08-28-2008, 06:11 PM

Seems common, see this thread for solutions, but in summary:
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6129_102...sageID=2740016
F8 (not for your problem, but handy to leave here)
Scroll lock
"click" scroll wheel
check for special areas of mouse touchpad

Follow the linke for more detail, but please come back and let us know what, if anything, works

HTH