Excel Wont Allow Data Entry into Cells

[ih8xc]

When I open an existing excel workbook and try to add data to my existing tables I simply cannot do it. I will type in the digits and press "enter" or "tab" and it disappears. There is no conditional formatting, the text colour is not white, no data validation, nothing of the sort. I can drag existing data down or across but cannot subsequently edit that data. I have no idea what's going on. The same error is occurring on all existing workbooks, but not on new work books. When I press enter or tab, the highlighted cell doesn't move down or to the right.

They are not opened as Read-Only, and there are no "Permission Settings" as far as I know. The first few workbooks I opened today did not have this issue. I'm quite perplexed by this, and I'll need to figure it out quickly, as most of my work day is data entry.

[Oppressed1]

I hope you won't be offended by the level one support suggestion "reboot" but I have witnessed bonafide miracles upon its execution. I assume you have already.

A couple of diagnostics to consider:
- If E3 is a suspicious cell, let F3 = E3 and examine.
A technique I use to keep empty cells straight is a variation on that step,
F3 = "<" & E3 & ">"
By the way, I use that frequently in VBA Immediate window, making uninitialized variables prominent.
By the way, examine the format of cell F3, and make it general if not already.

- Format suspicious cells as general.
If I were to guess I would think it's something in format. For example horizontal alignment may be pushing the content off the bottom or such. So my last suggestion is
- autofit the row and height on the suspicious cells.

Sorry to not have a cinch answer but HTH.

P.S. I can tell you know what you're doing by your checking conditional format and other subtle checks. Again, sorry for this "level one support" child-level advice in this message, but maybe it will steer you close to seeing the bizarre explanation.

[ih8xc]

No worries about the entry level advice. I'd have taken anything to solve the problem. I had rebooted already though.

I found the issue, or at least I think I did. Basically whoever had last saved the file somehow saved it with a dialog box open on another worksheet. Or it may have some had to do with the fact that multiple worksheets where selected (or highlighted) for printing when the last save was performed. Either way, I've got it working now.

[Oppressed1]

What I glean from your reply is a possibly corrupt workbook. A corrupt workbook is a horror beyond description; it can show 1 when it means 10. Them's job-firing fodder!

As to sage approaches to suspected corrupt workbooks I would Google for recommended steps. There are a quite extensive number of steps you can take, going down in the extreme case to reinstalling, and re-entering every single cell. It comes down to a judgment call as to how extreme you wish to act to prevent having a corrupt workbook. I'm on the side of overkill. I mean, think about it, you're at work and show the big boss a printout that shows 1.0 when the real answer is 1000000 ! Bet you won't type your résume in Excel that night!!

Sorry for the depressing post here!