Forum Discussion
Tabs in Excel Online worksheet move unexpectedly
So, I finally figured this out I believe, at least for us. When you open an Excel Doc in a web browser, and click on a tab, it automatically puts you in "move tab". You have to click twice on a tab to switch to it without being in "move tab". Not sure if this is an Excel bug or a Browser bug (Chrome in my case). But protecting the workbook structure fixes it, or just using it in desktop mode.
- Not just limited to Chrome. I'm using office in Edge (because I think I'm going to have some sort of experience using MS office within MS browser?). Still does it. I say Excel bug - er - quirk...
- Thank you!!!
awilcoxThis is the solution! If you click on a tab just one time and then move your mouse pointer to another tab, you'll see a small "move" arrow. Wherever you click, it will move your tab to this location. If you don't want your tab to move, you must click your original tab one more time. Now, when you move your mouse pointer to another tab, you'll see that there is no "move" arrow this time. Thanks!
ThomasVarshalOh my goodness, you are absolutely correct!!! AND, this is absurd default behavior!
Yes, so when you click a tab, it auto activates the "move" arrow. Clicking the tab again deactivates the move arrow.
It should be the EXACT OPPOPSITE. Clicking once should do nothing more than select the tab, period, end of action. If I want to move it I can manually drag it, or Microsoft could make it optional that if a tab is clicked a second time, THEN it activates the move arrow.
Thank you for discovering this!!!
This is definitely a UI design flaw!!
When you first click on a tab, you should not be in auto move mode. It should be click, hold, and move.
The current design flaw is click and move mouse, the tab will start to be in moving mode, and some time you don't experience it because the worksheet did not get reload.
To overcome this: you have to click, DO NOT move the mouse, let the worksheet load, or wait for a while, and the the auto-move mode will not be activate.
But hey, I click and I want to go inside my worksheet to edit something, I will sure move my mouse. Isn't this a design flaw?
ThomasVarshal
I have spotted this too, you can also click on the relevant tab slightly longer to select it.
But neither of these options is a "solution" per se.
Surely the default behaviour when you click on a tab should be that it activates that tab for viewing, as is the case in the offline version.
Why on earth would MS make this change?? It's counter-intuitiveYes, I think this works. Not a double-click. But a "good-bye" click when you are leaving a tab to go to another. If you double-click (two clicks in quick succession) that brings up the rename screen. So, one click to view a sheet. Another, separate click later to leave that sheet. Think of the second click as either driving a nail into it to hold it down or as saying good-bye to it so it doesn't follow you.
It's funny that this only became a problem for me yesterday, after using Excel online for 3 months in a multi-page worksheet. Until yesterday, pages stayed where I put them without having to click a second time to nail them down or say good-bye. Then yesterday -- same workbook, same computer, same ISP, same browser, same me, using it all in the same way -- they started moving all over the place unexpectedly.
Thanks for the workaround.
I have gone back to Microsoft chat support and this time insisted that they escalate the problem, successfully fending off their blaming of the browser, the ISP, etc. and resisting their suggestions that I switch to the desktop version. They gave me a case number and promised higher level technicians would try to come up with a fix.
I just noticed the same. I'm having the same issue and realized the sheets kept moving even while trying to reorganize them by date. Single clicking the sheet name automatically turns on the "reorder tab".
I'm having the same problem. Just started today after months of building this online workbook. Tabs have a mind of their own, all of a sudden. They rearrange their order randomly. I am wasting a lot of time putting them back in order. Microsoft tech support blamed my ISP (first tech) and my browser (second tech). I doubt both.
- Hi. We are experiencing the very same issues with tabs moving unexpectedly and random empty cells being selected when clicking on a new tab. Doesn't seem to happen when opening in the full app but many users prefer to use the browser version when working quickly through Teams (using Chrome). The other issue I've also come across is that where we have set up some columns with data validation to use a British date format (dd/mm/yyyy), when opening Excel in the browser version it will tend to only accept mm/dd/yyyy (ie the US format) even though data validation is still turned on. Very frustrating at times and again only seemingly cured by opening the full app. Will try the Protect Workbook idea but that may reduce some of our desired functionality. Interested to hear any other experiences or solutions.
- Have the sale issue. In Google Chrome or in Teams app - everything the same..
