Forum Discussion
Worksheet Cell Doesn't Highlight When Cursor Is In It
In Windows 10, latest version, when I'm in a Worksheet moving my Cursor around the Cells here's my problem:
I cannot tell where my Cursor is because the Cell is not highlighted in a light grey like it used to do with Windows 7, for example. That Cell stays 'white' just like all the other Cells in the Worksheet.
So, how do I make the Cell with the Cursor become Highlighted automatically??
19 Replies
hobbyhorse Yes, was having the same issue. I saved the worksheet and restarted the computer. Someone else can attempt to explain what happens technically, but ... Excel is a memory hog. When I have a spreadsheet open for a long time with multiple worksheets and lots of edits ... simple functions seem to drop out. It's RAM or buffering or something. But restarting the computer restored the function.
AmyB975
That seems extreme. Did you try to just close the Excel file and reopen, or maybe the Excel app and relaunch? That has worked for others.
hobbyhorse I have found that if you right click your mouse button, it brings up a menu and the cell is now highlighted.
dyoung305 Yes, f8 eventually gets you back to highlighting the cell(s) you are working with, which I've never used, but just tried, since I had this problem on ONE sheet of a Workbook, after I pasted something to the sheet. But, it would be nice if you would have added a few more words. Still, it's appreciated. 🙂
Like...Press f8 (called 'extend selection')
Select a cell (it may not highlight)
Select another cell (this should highlight the range you selected between the two cells)
Now, press Esc to unselect the range
Select the cell you want and you should see that it is now highlighted
- Thank you for this step by step fix. This did exactly what I needed.
hobbyhorse You can change the type of cursor, cursor size, its color, and it breath to better suit your needs and requirements.
Simply put, every time this happens, (In Windows 10 and 11), I just save the file, close it and re-open it. None of the right click stuff has ever worked for me.
MicIsWorthless Thanks! I haven't had this problem in quite sometime, but will consider this as a quick option if it happens again.
- The question becomes "HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE CURSOR TO HIGHLIGHT THE CELL IT IS IN?"
Thanks, but I know HOW to change the looks of the Cursor--that's not the issue. For example: say you drag your mouse to highlight the word "Cursor" in the above line; it highlights in a certain color, right? What if it did not change color? You couldn't tell if the word had been selected or not. THAT is what's happening in Excel: if I mouse over to say, cell 4D and I get a phone call so I answer it; I come back to Excel when I'm done and can't find where my cursor is because the Cell (4D) is not highlighted. See?
AshaKantaSharma The question becomes "HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE CURSOR TO HIGHLIGHT HE CELL IT IS IN?"
