Forum Discussion
Excel freezes when formatting cells
- 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.
Thank you again!
like all the others, I tried every think till formatting the PC! and nothing worked.
As it was a PC I used little I accepted to save the file myself every two minutes because on mine, it was not starting again after a few seconds but it was blocked until I kill the process.
And ! You saved me
thanks again
Emiru End of 2024 and this issue still exists. Thanks to you I found a solution.
- I had been experiencing the same problem for almost five months. However, I resolved the issue by removing all printers from my system, and now Microsoft Excel is working perfectly
I've had this problem for years now. The program was hanging for about a minute when formatting for the first time. Then there were no problems anymore afterwards during the session.
The format painter had no problems, so I often copied the format from another cell to avoid this issue.
Changing the printer default to Microsoft PDF printer definitively solved the problem.
Fantastic ! Thanks !
Eric
- Emiru
So glad I found this, I can't thank you enough!! I've had this ridiculous problem for SO LONGG that every time I try to bold some words in excel or change the font size, it would freeze for like 2 solid minutes. And lately, it just started crashing altogether and wouldn't unfreeze until I closed the app. Can't believe changing the printer to PDF default worked!! Read so many posts, and seems like Microsoft support couldn't even figure this out (big surprise), but YOU DID!! THANK YOU! God bless! Emiru . Wow! than you! your suggestion prompted me to switch on my VPN and voila - the problem was gone. My default printer is in the office. At home without VPN, it couldn't connect. Excel shouldn't hang for this reason though. I changed to Microsoft PDF printer as default and the problem has gone. Great !
- This worked amazingly. Thank you!
DematicBrian
I have tried all the steps; Repair office, re-install office 2021 and also re-install windows 11 & office 2021. Changed the printers standard, but still very often when I using the Format Cells, excel is freezing.So is there any other option that somebody can give me?
Also as Windows 11 and the office 2021 are out a long time already, is there any idea, when Microsoft will solve this issue??
Thanks,
Hans
THANK YOU! This easy solution not only solved my computer freezing up in Excel when trying to make format changes but fixed some terrible system issues I was having with Publisher.
Upon reflection, this must be do to Microsoft's goofy way of confirming settings with a printer. If the printer is offline or otherwise not available, the system seems to freeze. (They need to fix this!)
You're a lifesaver!
EmiruI had exactly same issus and changing default printer to PDF solved my problem. Thanks
