Cell selection

[riwiseuse]

I've been doing this for years on years and one part of Excel I cannot get used to is that when you are editing a cell and you finish, if you select another cell to work on , Excel instead believes that you want to add the Cell reference to the cell you are working on.

I run into this problem repeatedly in my work.

Is there a way or a preference to make this cell reference use only active with a modifier key?

So if I just click on a cell I select the cell and close out of the cell I was working on. But if I hold the shift or option or control --- then when I select it picks up the reference and puts it in the cell I'm working on.

Desparate in Rhode Island

PS - another peeve I have is this forum, which is a great forum, signs me out quicker than any other forum I've ever been on. Half the time I don't finish writing a post before I'm signed out and that often results in my losing the post if I don't remember to copy the whole thing before I try to post. Is there a preference I can set for longer dwell on my sign in that I'm missing?

equally Desparate in Rhode Island

[caracadon]

a modifier key

Instead of point and click to a different cell after entering your formula just use [Ctrl] or [Tab]

Is there a preference I can set for longer dwell on my sign in

I think if you check the check box on the login screen shown between your password entry and the [Login] button, you will not be timed out.

[riwiseuse]

Instead of point and click to a different cell after entering your formula just use [Ctrl] or [Tab]

Absolutely, that works. as does hitting the return or an arrow key out of the cell. It is just that I am thinking graphically about the move and am not going to an adjacent cell and despite years of making the mistake, i don't close out of a cell I was editting when I'm done, I point at another and click.

This kind of problem is reinforced because I do a lot of web design where you always point and click to select, and you never have to deselect the item you were working on which is effectively what Excel requires.

I always realize what I've done right after I do it, but I am so trained by these graphics programs I simply can't avoid doing it repeatedly. Usually I realize quickly. Do an undo command and then close out of the cell without screwing things up. But I was hoping there was a way that somebody else similar to myself might have found to work around this problem.

Thanks for chiming in. I'm not sure there is a preference or addressable native element that I can actually alter to chagne this operational feature but figured I'd put it out .

Brian