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How to move an excel sheet with left and right arrows.

Neil Lewis 20 Reputation points
2026-01-12T13:15:27.27+00:00

Bit of a basic question I know, however tech is not something I find easy! I run a bunch of spreadsheets for my business and when moving horizontally through cells with left or right arrows on the keyboard, the sheet itself has remained unchanged but the highlighted cell disappears off the right side of the screen. When I want to fill in cells that are off to the right of those displayed, I have to minimise right down or remember what each column is for so I can fill in the cell correctly. It has been like this for years.

Anyway, all of a sudden, one of my spreadsheets is now moving the sheet so that the cell I have moved to with the right hand arrows, is always displayed. I have no idea how I did it but it makes life so much easier. I have looked online but the explanation goes right over my empty head. Is there anyone who can tell me what I must have pressed on my keyboard to make the spreadsheet now move as I would like it? I have even opened this spreadsheet and another that does not move to see what differences there are across the tabs and in options under the file tab. I cannot find anything obviously different at all...

If you can help a daft, old git, I would be very appreciative.

Ta,

Neil

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For business | Android
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Michelle-N 16,635 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-01-12T14:33:56.7+00:00

Hi @Neil Lewis

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

Based on the information you shared, I understand that you are using Excel on Android with a physical keyboard. Historically, when you use the arrow keys to move right, the screen does not scroll with the cursor (causing the highlighted cell to disappear off-screen). However, you recently noticed one file behaving correctly (the screen moves with the cursor), and you want to replicate this behavior across your other spreadsheets.

After testing this in my own environment on Excel for Android, I observed that the standard behavior is for the sheet to scroll automatically so that the selected cell always remains visible on the screen.

To help troubleshoot why your other files are not behaving this way, could you please check the following:

-Do the files with the issue have "Freeze Panes" enabled? This feature locks certain columns in place and can often prevent the screen from scrolling as expected.

-If possible, please try copying just the raw data from a problematic sheet into a brand-new Excel file. Does the scrolling issue still happen in the new file?

If the issue persists, would you be willing to share a sample of the problematic file with me via Private Message? This would allow me to test it directly in my environment to identify the cause.

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  1. Neil Lewis 20 Reputation points
    2026-01-12T15:15:48.0066667+00:00

    Hi Michelle,

    Thank you ever so much for your reply. I have taken another look and yes, it is all down to the freezing of panes. I have always frozen the panes so that the totals and column headings are visible at all times. However, when I moved my duplicated my 2025 sheet into a new tab, cleared the contents and renamed in 2026 sheet, the panes unfroze. Although I re-froze them for some spreadsheets, I obviously overlooked doing so for the page that now moves. I am guessing that I can still freeze the panes but need to move the column and row much further to the right so that the worksheet will move up to that junction. Anyway, I shall play around with it and can always live with unfrozen sheets as I would much rather have moving cells.

    I am very appreciative of your help with this and immediately identifying where my error was. Thank you ever so much!

    Ta ra,

    N

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