***regaining control of Excel***

[DaveC]

HELP! I've been having a recurring general problem while
working in Excel -- and it's driving me absolutely mad.
While going about various entry/editing tasks, it
inexplicably locks into 'right-button down' mode. That
is, the program acts as if I am holding down the right
mouse button and it selects all cells that I drag the
mouse over. But I'm NOT holding down the mouse button.
After this 'mode' engages I cannot do anything else in
Excel -- ESC does not work, hot keys don't work, clicking
on drop down menus does not work--NOTHING works. I have
to CTR-ALT-DEL to shut down Excel manually with Windows
Task Manager, which says that Excel is "Running", even
though it is not responding properly. If I reboot the
machine, Excel works OK for a few minutes before lapsing
into the above-described mode. I'm running Office XP/Win2K
all SP's and patches are up to date) on a Dell Dimension
8200, 1.9 MHz, 1 GB RAM, 80GB HDD that's pretty empty. My
spreadsheets are small and simple one worksheet, minimal
calculations. I also tried swapped out my mouse but that
had no effect on the problem. Anybody have a suggestion
as to how I can regain control of Excel? THANKS!!!!

 

[Jim Rech]

Getting the very latest mouse drivers available for your mouse has been
known to fix this problem. For MS mice:

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouse/download.asp

 

[Myrna Larson]

I'm confused. For me, the *right* mouse button brings up a menu. If I hold it down and move the
mouse, I see the menu, but the selection doesn't change. OTOH, holding down the *left* buttons
does what you describe.

Do you have your left and right buttons switched, or did you mean the left button?

If the answer to the above is yes, do you see the word "EXT" down in the status bar? If so,
press F8 to get out of Extend mode. (This is a toggle, so you must have accidentally hit F8 to
get to this point.) There's only one problem with my diagnosis: if it's correct, then ESC should
get you out of it.

 

[John Wilson]

Dave,

First thing to try would be to press the F8 key.
Also, make sure that you have the correct mouse drivers installed
(from what I've read, Excel is picky about this).

If all else fails, try here:

http://www.geocities.com/davemcritchie/excel/ghosting.txt

John

 

[Dave C.]

It worked! Thanks! I downloaded/installed a new mouse
driver and I haven't had any problems. Sorry about my
error regarding the 'right' mouse click--I meant the OTHER
right muse button, i.e., the left mouse button! (lol)
Sorry about that error on my part.

-----Original Message-----
I'm confused. For me, the *right* mouse button brings up

a menu. If I hold it down and move the

mouse, I see the menu, but the selection doesn't change.

OTOH, holding down the *left* buttons

does what you describe.

Do you have your left and right buttons switched, or did you mean the left button?

If the answer to the above is yes, do you see the

word "EXT" down in the status bar? If so,

press F8 to get out of Extend mode. (This is a toggle, so

you must have accidentally hit F8 to

get to this point.) There's only one problem with my

diagnosis: if it's correct, then ESC should

get you out of it.

 

[Dave C.]

It worked! I downloaded/installed a new mouse driver and I
haven't had any problems. Thanks!