Why are my Ctrl - and Ctrl + shortcuts (delete and insert cells) not behaving properly

Abhinav Jain 5

I have multiple versions of the same file. I thought that the latest ones got corrupt at some point and Ctrl - wasn't working. All it did was delete the cell contents instead of deleting the cells.

So i started testing for the latest non corrupt file and found it, Ctrl - worked to delete 2-3 rows, then i tried deleting columns and it made the same error, deleting cell contents. Then when i tried deleting rows again (which worked earlier) and it started making that same error. I have no idea why this is happening. Please help.

Jiajing Hua-MFST 6,260 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-05-20T08:48:39.54+00:00
Hi @Abhinav Jain

Could you please tell us which version of Office are you using now?

You may go to Excel, click File > Account > Product Information, check its name and version number.

Are your workbooks protected?

Please check whether this issue occur with new created workbook.
Abhinav Jain 5 Reputation points

2024-05-20T20:28:42.39+00:00
Hey, actually my problem was solved by changing the keyboard from ENG US to ENG IN.

Here's the version

Microsoft® Excel® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2405 Build 16.0.17628.20006) 64-bit

Now

I was desperately looking for solutions online and this worked, but I have no idea how this solution works. So can you please not close the thread yet. I would like to know through more answers about what could have caused this.

I am not sure if I was using ENG IN before and this problem occurred after starting to use ENG US. And while using ENG US the keys worked once or twice and stopped working after that.
Jiajing Hua-MFST 6,260 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-05-21T08:53:24.65+00:00

Hi @abhinav jain

Thanks for your sharing.

Don't worry, this thread will not be closed.

Do you use English India? I will do a test.

1 answer

Chrysostomos Lefteratos 285 Reputation points

2024-05-21T09:38:33.14+00:00
Does it help?

Create a New Workbook: Copy and paste the data from the problematic workbook into a new Excel workbook. This can sometimes help resolve issues related to file corruption.

Save in a Different Format: Try saving the file in a different format (e.g., .xlsx to .xls or .csv) and then back to .xlsx.
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Abhinav Jain 5 Reputation points

2024-05-23T04:49:55.31+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion.

My file has macros and was an xlsb. I tried to change it to xlsm. Haven't changed it back yet because I found, the shortcut works perfectly when i turn calculations manual. If I face issues again, I will try your method, but so far its all good.

I think my excel was just too heavy, and it impeded the ability to perform certain things, esp. cell inserts and removes, because, not just the shortcut, even the ribbon function was facing the same issues.
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Why are my Ctrl - and Ctrl + shortcuts (delete and insert cells) not behaving properly

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