Forum Discussion

Tim_Hill2190's avatar
Tim_Hill2190
Copper Contributor
Sep 25, 2020

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 previously.

 

I've tried program repair, updates and re-installing Office and running in safe mode.  No luck.  Any suggestions for how I solve?

 

Many thanks!

 

  • 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.
  • Emiru's avatar
    Emiru
    Brass Contributor
    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.
    • Mike_ThomasClarke's avatar
      Mike_ThomasClarke
      Copper Contributor

      Emiru   Thank you. Thank you.  I just had the same problem for the past 8 hours.  I went in to set my default printer.  I did not have one set.  I had powered down my printer the night before.  I set the default printer to the pdf option.  It worked.    Thanks, again. 

    • charlie1volley's avatar
      charlie1volley
      Copper Contributor
      can't imagine how on earth you ever figured this out, but i'm glad you did, worked perfectly, thanks!
      • Dennis_Thibeault's avatar
        Dennis_Thibeault
        Copper Contributor

        charlie1volley Very strange, but that does appear to work.  I just changed my default printer to Microsoft PDF and the format cells no longer pauses/hangs Excel for 40-60 seconds.  Great workaround, now let's see if the good folks at Microsoft can fix that one 🙂

         

    • bobbyh60's avatar
      bobbyh60
      Copper Contributor

      Emiru Brilliant. Have been having this problem for a while (may be because I am still using Windows 7). I Changed the PDF printer to default and all is now fine. Many thanks!

  • GeoffD33's avatar
    GeoffD33
    Copper Contributor

    Tim_Hill2190 so we are now a year on from this issue being highlighted and Microsoft still haven't issued a simple fix?  Don't they monitor this community??  Obviously too busy working on Windows 11 which is going to be just horrendous for most of us.

      • NikolinoDE's avatar
        NikolinoDE
        Gold Contributor

        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)

  • FKS-3's avatar
    FKS-3
    Copper Contributor
    Wie kann ich eine 15 spaltige und 1000 Zeilen Datei mit unterschiedlichen Zahlen von 1-300 so reihen, daß alle Zahlen aufsteigend in der Zeile gereiht werden
  • wolfy86's avatar
    wolfy86
    Copper Contributor
    Setting the pdf printer as default was the solution in a Office 2019!!
  • Sunnyside63's avatar
    Sunnyside63
    Copper Contributor

    Changing default printer to a PDF printer seems to have worked for me and it makes sense regarding when this started happening.  I had an older personal laptop and everything had been fine with Office apps (2010 version) and then I started noticing this problem.  I've recently purchased a new laptop and everything was fine at first but then suddenly this started happening again.  I realize now that it's related to having multiple printers from different sites installed.  I'm working part time and using this laptop and the previous for personal use and for work using a separate user account.  All printers installed show in both accounts and I'm guessing that the trashing or delay is caused by Excel trying to attach the the last printer used.  Setting default to a PDF printer that's always available prevents this from happening.  Thanks for the useful hint