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Excel 2013 unable to type in cell

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Thursday, October 31, 2013 7:06 AM

Hi, My problem encountered is 

- when i click on the excel's cell, i'm unable to type in the word directly unless i double click on each of the cell only can type.

After tried to restart the excel, then it works.

May I know any cause on this or any solution for this?Because it keeps happening out of sudden and i have tried to reinstall and disable all the adds-on but still the same.

Anyone can help?!!

 

All replies (56)

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 9:33 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote

Have you checked if you disabled 'allow editing directly in cells'?

  1. Select File->Options->Advanced from the excel menu bar.
  2. On Editing Options ,Ensure that the check box "Edit Directly in cell" is checked.

Thursday, May 15, 2014 12:34 PM | 2 votes

Having the same issue, and this did not solve it for me.  Running 32-bit win7 with Excel 2013.  Can't type into any cells, can cut/paste/drag boxes, keyboard works fine everywhere else, tried re-launching excel, no avail.  will try a reboot.

Friday, August 8, 2014 11:34 PM

I'm sure you have not had any issues in the last couple months, but just in case. I had to force close the process in task manager in order to get the functionality back. Very weird issue. 

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 8:58 AM | 3 votes

 Hi 

I had exactly the same problem in one Spreadsheet while another one open at the same time was fine. I followed the advise from excel but the advanced box "edit directly in Cell" was already checked. However I found that when I saved the spreadsheet, the problem went away and I was able to type in the cells again. It may be caused by a "time between saves" or something.

Hope this works for you too. 

Monday, December 8, 2014 9:41 PM

This worked for me! Thanks

Tuesday, January 6, 2015 12:17 AM | 10 votes

Another way to clear it... In my case, I simply went to one of the other open worksheets/files, clicked in it, then went back to suspect worksheet/file. (Could not save or even close suspect file.) This clears the problem 100% of the time (happens to me fairly frequently). Don't know what's causing it, but I must say that 2013 Office overall seems to be quite buggy. :(

Saturday, February 14, 2015 12:15 AM

Same problem here, we have a user running 32-bit win7 with Excel 2013, has been on the 2013 version for a few weeks. She has only had this problem since last Tuesday when we received updates to office 2013. She is often in up to 5 windows of Excel at a time, the temporary resolution for now is for her to close and window and reopen it per Mike Texter, that seems to work for the problem.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015 8:22 PM

I have a user with the same problem. If she clicks off onto another sheet and back she can type in the cell again. Win 8.1 64 bit. Excel 2013.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015 9:39 PM

Same issue here, have been dealing with it for months, driving me insane.  Clicking into another worksheet in the same spreadsheet and back again fixes it for me.  Happens intermittently, but very very frequently.

Win7Pro(64), Office2013(64)

Sunday, March 8, 2015 3:50 PM

I have the same problem.  Clicking in either another worksheet in the same spreadsheet or another open spreadsheet fixes it, but only briefly.  And it also happens intermittently but frequently for me as well.

Win8.1 pro, Office 2013 (32bit)

Wednesday, April 22, 2015 7:29 PM

Same problem and fix for me.  Also, my mouse wheel won't scroll the spreadsheet.  Dragging the mouse over the scroll bar will scroll the spreadsheet.  Clicking on a cell in another sheet also fixes this.  Sometimes this happens 3, 4 times a day.  Very frustrating.  I don't know if it's because I have multiple Excel files opened.  I do not do anything fancy such as protecting sheets or locking cells.  The last file I worked on with this problem had all text, no formulae. 

Monday, May 4, 2015 9:09 AM

It seems that there are a number of us with this issue.  I resolve this in the same way as most users - I select another worksheet then return to my original worksheet / cell and am able to type for a short time.  This is not what I would expect from a Microsoft product and hope that a solution will be made available to us. 

Monday, May 4, 2015 9:10 AM

This is not the solution to the problem as all users who have reported this error have got this check box ticked.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015 2:38 PM

Hi, I had exactly the same problem.

I tried:

Check if "edit directly in Cell" is checked - yes.

Change to manual Calculation - nonsense, everytime after edit cell tap F9 for recalculation (that's right I buy a notebook and a calculator).

Buy new mouse and keyboard - no change.

Clicking to another sheet - annoying and delaying work.

Click on Save when problem occurred - not workin for me.

Have anybody alse another options of solutions?

Thank you very very much ;)

Wednesday, May 6, 2015 8:19 PM | 1 vote

I got rid of everything in this folder EXCEPT XLSTART and it seemed to do the trick

C:\Users\XXXXX\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel

if it does for you too, I have saved this path as one of my favorites and periodically dump it out

Friday, August 7, 2015 9:06 PM

This is not the correct solution. Have there been any other solutions to the problem most have posted about having?

Wednesday, August 12, 2015 11:09 PM

Exact same issue here. Happens every 30 seconds. Excel was my least favourite app even before this bug.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015 7:41 PM

I had two Excel spreadsheets open at the same time.  I was editing one with information with the other.  When I closed the one I wasn't editing, the problem of not being able to type in a cell went away.  Not sure if this was a fluke or not, but it worked for me.

Sunday, September 6, 2015 4:03 AM | 3 votes

Same or similar problem here. Excel works fine most of the time. But often I can't:

  • type any text into a cell 
  • type text into a cell using the formula bar
  • copy or paste
  • insert a new line
  • scroll with mouse wheel (can scroll with scroll bars)
  • move between cells with arrow keys or tab

But when this is happening I still can

  • click on a cell, row, or column to highlight it
  • save the file

What seems very strange, is that when this problem is happening, if I hit Enter, my screen jumps to another Excel file that I happen to have open. (But I can type etc. in the other file when this happens.) 

As others have suggested, saving the file sometimes fixes this (temporarily). Also selecting another worksheet in the same document often fixes it (temporarily). 

I can sometimes (but not always) duplicate the problem by:

  1. double clicking on existing text in a cell
  2. editing the text by adding a single character (sometimes adding an "a" won't trigger the problem, but a "d" will, but even this isn't consistent). It doesn't matter if I edit the text in the cell or in the formula bar.
  3. hitting enter (this seems to be key to triggering it). The next cell down is now highlighted. 
  4. Try to type--nothing happens. Or hit enter again and the screen changes to an unrelated open Excel document.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015 8:50 AM

Same issue here. Not for me but for a user at my company. I will try the temporary solutions that you have provided for now, but a more permanent fix would be nice.

The user had Excel 2010 a couple of months ago and did not have this issue. It started after I upgraded her to 2013.

Also, when this happens and we try to save the document, it says the document cannot be saved due to it beeing write protected, but after closing it down and checking the file properties, it's not write protected at all and it has only been saved locally on the users desktop. No roaming profile is in use either.

After opening the document once again, typing in cells will work, but sooner or alter the issue comes back and it does several times a week.

Saturday, September 12, 2015 8:41 PM

I have the same problem but NONE of these fixes work for me.  Excel is useless and this is beyond frustrating.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015 8:45 AM

Same problem here.

Also, freeze and unfreeze task in process explorer fix (temp) problem.

If in this bugstate try to zoom (with scroll left down corner), we see bug with highlight cell.

win 7 x32, Office 2013 x32

Someone found solution?

Friday, October 30, 2015 10:55 PM | 1 vote

FIX

Close the other Excel files you have open. This is what is causing the issue with not being able to edit cells.

Close the other documents, and re-open your Excel File. This should fix the issue.

Monday, November 2, 2015 3:13 PM

FIX

Close the other Excel files you have open. This is what is causing the issue with not being able to edit cells.

Close the other documents, and re-open your Excel File. This should fix the issue.

This is a workaround and not a fix. Why would you only be able to have one Excel file open at a time be a feature?

Thursday, November 5, 2015 4:54 PM | 1 vote

I was able to resolve by going to FIle > Options > Advanced and under the Display section disabling graphics acceleration.

Monday, November 16, 2015 8:32 AM

This doesn't work.

Monday, November 23, 2015 10:12 PM

I am having the exact same issues as radiodave2. Tried the option of disabling graphics acceleration but this did not work for me either. Has anyone found a solution yet (besides closing active sheets - NOT an acceptable answer). This does not happen on my Office 2010 computers. For the problematic system, I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, Office 2013.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015 4:03 PM

I have had 1 user with this exact problem (2013 Home & Business 32-bit) for the last couple of years.

We have gone as far as to perform a complete clean installation of Windows, Office etc to no avail. Eventually the problem vanished on it's own, I suspect an update fixed it but cannot prove this. More recently, the same user was migrated into an Office 365 Enterprise subscription, so moved to using 2013 Pro Plus (32-bit) - the problem has reoccurred since the product was installed.

No other users at the same business have this problem, despite having identical configurations (deployed from the same SCCM). It's utterly baffling!

Wednesday, January 20, 2016 11:09 PM

I had a similar problem. i used a "@" symbol in my sheet and accidental created a hyper link. shortly After disabling the hyper link i couldn't enter text into boxes. I dropped down the excel window and found my pc was trying to access the dead hyper link and was waiting for my cancel the command. closed all windows and put excel into full screen again. Worked as normal straight away.

Hope it's what your looking for.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016 9:24 PM

This did not work for me.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016 5:59 AM

Thank you

It worked for me...!!

Wednesday, December 7, 2016 5:22 PM



I got rid of everything in this folder... sbrummeyer

This totally fixed my issue... this would start happening randomly and last for some period of time and then suddenly stop.  Cleaning out this folder was the trick.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016 6:18 PM

I don't have access to that folder as it is a work computer but I keep running into this problem with Excel and it is becoming more frequent.  It's ridiculous that we can't have multiple files open at a time.  Is Microsoft actually working on an answer?

Thursday, April 20, 2017 11:16 AM

    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    Workbooks.Add
    Range("A1").Activate
    ActiveWindow.Close
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True

Wednesday, May 31, 2017 12:13 PM

This information was very helpful.

Thursday, June 22, 2017 3:10 PM

This works but I agree, I sometimes need multiple workbooks open. PLEASE FIX THIS! 

Wednesday, July 5, 2017 2:29 PM

I have seen this problem many times too. I guess we are stuck with the workaround!

Monday, October 30, 2017 2:08 PM

You are right this is a workaround.  Another workaround that avoids closing all of your other worksheets is to just select another sheet then select back to the sheet you are trying to edit. This is a pain, and I cannot believe Microsoft has not addressed this.

From what I can tell, Excel has changed the active worksheet ! this affects entry, but not the graphics, i.e. you can still move around in the current sheet, highlight cells etc, but not change any cells of the currently displayed sheet. BE CAREFUL - certain actions can actually change cells in the activesheet (which you do not see). Fortunately this brings it to the top of the display and you can then undo (if you noticed what you corrupted). Each time Microsoft comes out with patched to Excel/Office I expect to see this fixed, but have come to the conclusion they don't realize they have an issue !!

Monday, October 30, 2017 2:14 PM

I have only seen this on Windows 8 & 10, with both Office 2010 and Office 2013

I have never seen it happen on Windows 7 (Pro or Home editions)

Other workaround is to select another tab/sheet then reselect desired sheet

Wednesday, December 20, 2017 5:43 PM

Thank you! It works!!!

Monday, January 15, 2018 8:58 PM

I've had this problem (in fact, I just experienced it for umteenth time) on BOTH Win 7 Pro and Win 10 Home (both x64) and Excel 2013 (32 bit).  I do have "edit in cell" disabled and also have hardware acceleration disabled.  It's a pain in the assets that I think Microsoft is just ignoring because us beta testers have found various ways to work around THEIR BUGs.

Ben

Thursday, January 25, 2018 11:18 PM | 1 vote

I encountered a similar problem of not being able to type in any cell after running some VBA code using Excel 2016. I could type in the cell once I clicked onto a different worksheet and back. I tried adding this step to the end of the VBA code by setting the worksheet as "active", but that didn't work.
What did work: The formula bar was hidden, so I made it visible, and this problem went away. Amazing.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018 10:31 AM

Select few cells and you would see Quick Analysis icon being popped (ctrl+Q) on the sheet.

Place your mouse on the pop up you you can see the selected cells being highlighted which means you sheet is now ready to edit.

Thursday, February 8, 2018 5:53 PM

This thread is almost 5 years old - how in the world is this still an issue?

Microsoft needs to figure out what is going on and FIX THIS.   None of these workarounds correct the issue very long.  Switching tabs will let the user type for a while, but that's it, and then the problem persists.

I mean, COME ON, really?

Friday, February 23, 2018 8:30 AM

Had the very same problem when opening then closing another workbook.

I founda solution by creating another Excel process that won't interfer :

    Dim xlSource As Excel.Application
    Dim wbSource As Excel.Workbook
    
    Set xlSource = New Excel.Application
    Set wbSource = xlSource.Workbooks.Open(sSourcePath)
    
    
    If Not wbSource.ReadOnly Then
         wbSource.Worksheets("DATA").Range("a1") = "FRESH & SHINY NEW DATA"
    Else
        Set wbSource = Nothing
        Exit Sub
    End If

    With wbSource
        .Save
        .Close
    End With
    
    'wbSource.Close False
    Set wbSource = Nothing

    xlSource.Quit
    Set xlSource = Nothing

Tuesday, April 3, 2018 9:56 PM

I am having the exact same issue suddenly with my file for work. I am able to type in from Unit 1.1 to unit 16.5b but when I try to type in any other cells bellow it highlights one in blue and says this =158909909090. I have tried all these suggestions but nothing works. I can't even make a new document and copy and paste my work to that new document it won't copy. I can't insert a new cell nothing. It was working fine yesterday but now I cant do anything with the rest of the data. 

Wednesday, April 4, 2018 4:16 PM

a quick fix (not permanent) is to click your start button and in the search bar, type "run" - when it opens, type "excel.exe /safe" and it will open in safe mode. Close it and reopen your normal files.  It fixes whatever is wrong with it at that time and will work fine for several hours without this issue.

Monday, July 23, 2018 4:00 PM

Microsoft, this abysmal problem is still at large in Office 365 version 2016. It is so irritating. If I have 20-30 cells to enter, I have to switch sheets 20-30 times. This is a significant productivity drag. It is taking great self control not to load this post with jabs at your customer service. You obviously do not take pride in the quality of your software. You only take pride in its price tag. Yes, your callous lack of concern makes me angry. And the fact that the Users are the ones that came up with this work around INSTEAD OF MICROSOFT PRODUCT SUPPORT/DEVELOPMENT TEAM really makes this hard to swallow. All you care about is the credit card token you've stashed away. After that, we're (read 'the Customer') on our own.

With Kind regards, a VERY disgruntled user.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018 4:34 PM

I see this issue often, even now, with Excel in Office 365 on Windows 10.  It seems to have something to do with refreshing the Excel pane or similar.  Any number of things resolve the issue, close and reopen (doesn't always work), save, close in task manager (usually works).  The simplest and quickest solution I've found is to just drag the Excel pane slightly on the desktop (remember that you cannot be viewing as full screen in order to drag).

Monday, October 1, 2018 12:48 PM

Truly amazing, this was the right answer for me too.

Saturday, November 24, 2018 5:41 AM

After an hour and a half, embarrassingly, the simple thing was the solution.  I turned on the number lock on the key pad.  It would have been nice if the key had a light.  I would have noticed.

Friday, December 7, 2018 11:34 PM

Early reports from our Excel 2019 users are saying that this problem is fixed. Let's hope!

Friday, March 22, 2019 8:02 AM

Highlight the affected cells and change the font color to automatic.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019 3:32 PM

This bug has been there for many years, say 10 at least and was never fixed...

We are also struggling with, and for all the people we have here in our company.

This is simple UNACCEPTABLE ... but Microsoft has a monopolistic position and does not care about customer satisfaction.

Wednesday, May 8, 2019 7:53 AM

Try reinstall office

Tuesday, June 23, 2020 8:30 AM

Here I am in mid-2020 still facing this Excel problem using Version 2005 (Build 12827.20268) - almost the latest, and I am still encountering the same issue reported by dozens of others above.

Its occurrence seems a bit random, but it has hit me at least several times this week already.  I am quite a heavy user of Excel, and always have multiple workbooks open. 

As reported by others, clicking anywhere on another one of those open workbooks, and then returning to the problematic one always relieves the problem, if only for a limited time.

In the example that is currently hitting me, it is a new worksheet, with very little data entered so far, and containing nothing but text items - no formulas or tables, etc.

As @Cavadore says, it is simply UNACCEPTABLE that Microsoft can fail to resolve (or it seems even acknowledge this issue).

We want an actual fix, not a workaround!