Knowledge Base

WD97: Mouse Click Selects Multiple Cells in Embedded Spreadsheet

Article ID: 140869

Article Last Modified on 1/19/2007

APPLIES TO

This article was previously published under Q140869

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Word, when you click a cell in an embedded Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, multiple cells are selected. Repeatedly clicking in other cells continues to select cells instead of clearing the current selection.

This action is similar to holding down the SHIFT key while you click in a different section of the spreadsheet.

Other symptoms include loss of characters and characters changing between uppercase and lowercase.

CAUSE

The possible causes for this problem include the following:
  • The SHIFT key is stuck in the down position.

    -or-
  • The extend selection mode is turned on.

    -or-
  • All Caps formatting is turned on.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use the appropriate method for your situation.

Method 1: Stuck SHIFT Key

Check to see if either SHIFT key is stuck in the down position on your keyboard.

Method 2: Turn Off Extend Mode

If EXT appears bold in your status bar, press ESC on your keyboard and then click somewhere in your document to deselect any selection.

Method 3: Turn Off All Caps Formatting

To turn off All Caps formatting, follow these steps:
  1. Select any words that are in all capital letters.
  2. On the Format menu, click Font.
  3. Check to clear the All Caps check box.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The following table lists ways you can extend a selection. 
   To do this                             Press this key
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Turn extend mode on                    F8

   Select the nearest character           F8, and then press the LEFT ARROW
                                          key or the RIGHT ARROW key

   Increase the size of a selection       F8 (press once to select a
                                          word, twice to select a sentence,
                                          and so forth)

   Reduce the size of a selection         SHIFT+F8

   Turn extend mode off                   ESC

Additional query words: highlight select many shift cells loss missing characters case change embedded OLE winword Graph spreadsheet

Keywords: kbbug kbinterop kbnofix KB140869


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