by Just imagine this. You are working on a spreadsheet normally when all of a sudden you notice that you cannot move from cell to cell - instead of getting to the next cell, the arrow keys scroll the whole worksheet. Don't panic, your Excel is not broken. You have just accidentally turned Scroll Lock on, and this can be easily fixed.
What is Scroll Lock in Excel?
Scroll Lock is the feature that controls the behavior of the arrow keys in Excel.
Usually, when the Scroll Lock is disabled, arrow keys move you between individual cells in any direction: up, down, left or right.
However, when the Scroll Lock is enabled in Excel, arrow keys scroll the worksheet area: one row up and down or one column to the left or right. When the worksheet is scrolled, the current selection (a cell or range) does not change.
How to determine that Scroll Lock is enabled
To see whether the Scroll Lock is turned on, just look at the status bar at the bottom of the Excel window. Among other useful things (such as page numbers; average, sum and count of selected cells), the status bar shows if Scroll Lock is on:
If your arrow keys scroll the whole sheet instead of moving to the next cell but the Excel status bar has no indication of Scroll Lock, most likely your status bar was customized not to display the Scroll Lock status. To determine if it's the case, right click the status bar and see if there is a tick mark to the left of Scroll Lock. If a tick mark is not there, simply click the Scroll Lock to have its status appear on the status bar:
Note. The Excel status bar only displays the Scroll Lock status, but does not control it.
How to turn off Scroll Lock in Excel for Windows
Much like Num Lock and Caps Lock, the Scroll Lock feature is a toggle, meaning it can be turned on and off by pressing the Scroll Lock key.
Disable scroll lock in Excel using the keyboard
If your keyboard has a key labeled as Scroll Lock or ScrLk key, just press it to turn Scroll Lock off. Done :)
As soon as you do this, Scroll Lock will disappear from the status bar and your arrows keys will move from cell to cell normally.
Turn off Scroll Lock on Dell laptops
On some Dell laptops, you can use the Fn + S shortcut to toggle Scroll Lock on and off.
Toggle Scroll Lock on HP and Lenovo laptops
On an HP or Lenovo laptop, press the Fn + C key combination to turn Scroll Lock on and off.
Remove scroll lock in Excel using on-screen keyboard
If you don't have the Scroll Lock key and none of the above mentioned key combinations work for you, you can "unlock" Scroll Lock in Excel by using the on-screen keyboard.
The fastest way to turn off Screen Lock in Excel is this:
- Click the Windows button and start typing "on-screen keyboard" in the search box. Usually, it is sufficient to type the first two characters for the On-Screen Keyboard app to appear at the top of the search results.
- Click the On-Screen Keyboard app to run it.
- The virtual keyboard will show up, and you click the ScrLk key to remove Scroll Lock.
You'll know that Scroll Lock is disabled when the ScrLk key returns to dark-grey. If it is blue, Scroll Lock is still on.
Alternatively, you can open the virtual keyboard in the following ways:
On Windows 10
Click Start > Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard, and then click the On-Screen Keyboard slider button.
On Windows 8.1
Click Start, press Ctrl + C to display the Charms bar, then click Change PC Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard > On Screen Keyboard slider button.
On Windows 7
Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Ease of Access > On-Screen Keyboard.
To close the on-screen keyboard, click the X button in the upper-right corner.
Scroll Lock in Excel for Mac
Unlike Excel for Windows, Excel for Mac does not show Scroll Lock in the status bar. So, how can you know that Scroll Lock is on? Press any arrow key and watch the address in the name box. If the address does not change and the arrow key scrolls the whole worksheet, it's safe to assume that Scroll Lock is enabled.
How to remove Scroll Lock in Excel for Mac
On the Apple Extended Keyboard, press the F14 key, which is an analogue of the Scroll Lock key on a PC keyboard.
If F14 exists on your keyboard, but there is no Fn key, use the Shift + F14 shortcut to toggle the Scroll Lock on or off.
Depending on your settings, you may need to press the CONTROL or OPTION or COMMAND (⌘) key instead of the SHIFT key.
If you are working on a smaller keyboard that does not have the F14 key, you can try to remove Scroll Lock by running this AppleScript that emulates the Shift + F14 keystroke.
That's how you turn off Scroll Lock in Excel. I thank you for reading and hope to see you on our blog next week!
34 comments
Thank you this was so helpful! I ended up having to use the on-screen keyboard; I have no idea what toggle I used to activate it, but I'm just happy that you gave so many possible solutions. Very comprehensive!
Thank you very much!!!! Very useful information
I haven't found anything that works to stop the scroll. Scroll lock is not on.
Please use Fn+S
In my case unfreeze pane did the trick. View / Freeze panes / Unfreeze pane.
yes work it for me/ thanks mate
Thank you! worked for me as well.
Nothing helps! Nothing!! Excel sheet has activecell continuously scrolling to the right - no matter what I do to correct it.
Same for me… I have tried everything and it continuously scrolls to the right… Please help!
My excel workbooks contain many worksheets and there is a need to jump quickly to and from each worksheet.
I used to be able to scroll between each worksheet by scrolling with my touchpad, but this has just stopped working. I have to now tap one worksheet at a time or go through the 'left click / right click / see all sheets' process which is time consuming. It is if something has been switched on or off. Any ideas please. With thanks, Ronald
hold down the CTRL button and then tap page up or page down to move through the Excel worksheets.
Thanks a lot for the help! I have Lenovo and although the Virtual Keyboard works, my combination is Fn + C! Again thanks.
Thanku so much
This is amazing. The internet is virtually flooooooded (!!) with this massively pointless advise on how to unlock scroll lock using on-screen keyboard. I am truly amazed at this. How can sooooo many people deliberately choose to answer this wrong??
The problem is that everyone(!) ever googling this problem, has somehow accidentally clicked a keyboard combo that results in Scroll lock. But then why,....oh why...(!?), don't people talk about what the keyboard shortcut IS to toggle scroll lock? I don't want to NOT know how scroll lock is suddenly and accidentally enabled, but know how to go to OSK every time(!) to disable it... :))))))))))
Please just say:
You accidentally clicked this XYZ keyboard combo which is set as shortcut for enabling scroll lock. Please try to avoid the combo in the future, unless deliberate, and whenever it happens by accidnet, use keyboard shortvcut combo ABC to disable it.
Also, if you want to disable the keyboard shortcut combo for scroll lock entirely, then do this....!
On ThinkPads it's function key + K.
Seems different laptops have different hotkey shortcuts to handle scroll lock.
I am a dell user and fn+s worked for me.
Thanks Dude,
It appears from these comments that many different laptops have many different hotkey shortcuts to toogle scroll lock, and that's why so many of us are accidentally turning it on and can't figure out how to turn it off again.
On some Dell laptops, it is —
Fn + s
Thank you!!
Thank you yes it is Fn+s for Dell lappy with Excel 2016. Was driving me crazy trying to figure our how it was getting turned on
Thanks so much - you not only saved me much frustration but it is great to know how what caused the problem in the first place
Thanks a lot.
Thank you so much. There're a 1,000 sites telling me to use the virtual keyboard but not one single one answering how it got turned on by my cat in the first place (she certainly didn't do that).
You have saved my sanity!
Yes the last comment worked for me - fn + C
Thanks sir, now working
No need to waste that much effort as given in this article. Just use shortcut key Fn+C from windows keyboard.
thaaats what I needed. Great man!
THANKS!!! This is a lifesaver!
Thank you.
I tried pretty much avery complicated combo on my keyboard, but the obvious ones :)
You helped a lot.
This was really helpful. It works like nothing else :).
You are the man.
fn + capslock is the hotkey that worked for me to toggle scroll lock
You saved me, thank you!
Thank you! This worked. :)