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.
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?
So, I discovered something. This may have been fixed and you just don't know it.
I noticed that for one of my files the tabs were jumping everywhere, just as we are saying. I noticed I had a newer file where that behavior was NOT happening.
So I closed the document where it WAS happening and reopened it and now it's NOT happening.
So one of two things. Either it was fixed, but I wasn't seeing it (you aren't seeing it), because the file is perpetually open, 24 hours a day, so that "instance" of Excel is not current and fixed with whatever patch MS issued.
The other option is there is some sort of hotkey command that activates the move feature. And everyone on this thread (including myself of course), somehow magically stumbled upon that hotkey to activate the move feature.
I'm going to opt for scenario A, that the current workbook that's open just needs to be closed and reopened with the latest update/patch.
Seriously have to say how helpful it is to have this chat option. We all thought we were crazy and the only ones that were experiencing this "moving tabs" deal.
Anyways, super helpful to have a chat like this. Thanks everyone for your input!
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.
The bug is gone (for me at least). Looks like MS solved the issue.
jackstraxxI agree that the current behavior is not ideal. I don't remember having this issue before; was there a recent update that introduced this?
