Forum Discussion

Copper Contributor

Sep 25, 2020

Solved

Excel freezes when formatting cells

When I try to format a cell in Excel - bolding, underlining, switching font size - the program freezes and I need to re-start. Is a new issue from last 2 days having worked without problems previous...

Emiru
Dec 30, 2020
This may sound ridiculously simple, but try to change your default printer to PDF. I have suffered from the same problem and this helped instantly.

Platinum Contributor

Sep 25, 2020

Unfortunately, I can't help you there. The only thing I have to offer is an old ticket through office 2016 with roughly the same problem. Take a look, maybe this will help you.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/microsoft-excel-2016-crashes-on-formatting-cells/51e29d30-82b0-4eae-bc3f-577b97d04bc9

Nikolino
I know I don't know anything (Socrates)

Lalit_singh_inda
Copper Contributor
Jan 25, 2022
I am also faced the same issue you just have to restart Print spooler service and issue got resolved.
NikolinoDE
- NikolinoDE
  Platinum Contributor
  Jan 25, 2022
  Lalit_singh_inda
  Thank you for your feedback.
  I would be happy if you would describe the steps (what exactly you did) to us.
  This would also help others here in the forum.
  When describing, please also describe the digital environment.
  Office version, operating system, storage medium (hard drive, OneDrive, Sharepoint, etc.), printer model.
  
  Thank you,
  NikolinoDE
  I know I don't know anything (Socrates)
  - chiragjbhatt
    Copper Contributor
    May 02, 2026
    This issue was reported in 2020. It is 2026 now and still having the same issue. As Microsoft blog suggested, I did start Excel in SafeMode, turned off COM plugins, checked "Disable hardware acceleration" but none of that fixed. I also did full online repair but no luck. However, changing the default printer to PDF worked. It is weird but I am not sure why Microsoft hasn't fixed this for six years.