Excel cursor identifying incorrect cell in spreadsheet

Question

Hi, I've a problem with the cursor identifying the wrong cell in Excel. Happens regularly and to resolve it I either have to close/reopen Excel or increase/decrease the zoom. Running Mac10.15.2 [Catalina] and Excel 16.16.17. Have seen this issue flagged before: but I seem to be using the latest iteration of both OS and Excel so updating has not helped. Grateful for any advice which stops this very frustrating issue. Thanks, Rory

Answer 1

Hi Rory，

Thanks for your sharing Such a detailed description of the issue and the steps to reproduce

Besides, the screenshots of table and version information  give us a full understanding of the issue.

To narrow down this issue,  I need more information to move further:

1.As you said, all workbook with latter version have no affected, this issue only occurred in previous version. Then you can create a new table with latest version and copy all data in problematic table to check if this issue related table version

2.As there are large amount of data in this table, to check if this issue related table size, please create a new table with some sample data to check the result. If it works fine, you can add the sample data  as much as the data in the problematic table to see the result. According to your description, I have tested on my side include add large amount of number, adjust zoom and change view to display, then all things work fine.

3.If issue persist, you can also try to uninstall and reinstall Office 2016 for Mac from the article to check the result:

Uninstall Office for Mac

Download and install or reinstall Office 2016 or Office 2013

For further reproduce, Could you please tell me how often does this issue occur?

As I noticed that you open the table in page layout view and in my research, there is a similar issue that the cursor recognition position is incorrect only occurred in page layout view, you can try to change the view to normal view to check the result.

Related thread: Cursor misalignment Excel 2019 Mac page layout view

Please have a try and share with me your results.

Regards,

Uniquem

Answer 2

Hi Rory，

Have you tried Uniquem's advices to check the result?

If you have any updates, welcome to post back at any time when you're free.

Regards,

Higgins

Answer 3

Hi Rory,

Excel 2011 will not launch nor run in Mac OS 10.15.2 because it is 32-bit and starting with Catalina Apple is supporting only 64-bit applications.

Excel 2016 version 16.16.17 is the current update for Excel, but 16.16.18 will be out shortly. Be sure to test in 16.16.18 when it becomes available to you.

The misalignment of cursor and the grid is a problem that seems to come and go with Excel. Please don't waste your time with the ridiculous suggestion to uninstall/reinstall Office. That's a way to fix a corrupt registry in Microsoft Windows, but there's no registry on your Mac. Performing an uninstall/reinstall exercise has a very slim chance of fixing this problem.

You would be much better served by alerting Microsoft to this issue. Click the Smile button in the upper right corner of the workbook window to send a report and screen shot to Microsoft's developer team. Sending a report this way sends important metrics about your system to Microsoft. The metrics will help them troubleshoot and solve this issue.

Then simply wait for the monthly update and hope they fix this. There's nothing you can do on your end except revert to an older build that does not have the problem. To revert to an older build, use Time Machine to restore an older build Microsoft Excel.app. Choose the Replace option. Then go to the Excel Help menu and choose Check for Updates. Set AutoUpdate to manual until such time as you want to try the current update.

Answer 4

Hi Uniquem,

Sorry day-job and weekend sport got in the way.l

Tried your suggestions 1, 2 & 4:

1 - worked! Yippee, but no matter how I tried to export the resulting table was a dog's dinner and reformatting added to my general frustration,2 - see above,

your last suggestion worked another yippee, would love to know why normal works and page view doesn't; but I suspect I'd fail to understand the explanation. So this although also frustrating might be the best work around.

When I saved in normal view and reopen the spreadsheet the problem recurred.

Best wishes, Rory

Answer 5

Hi Higgins,

yes see last entry to Uniquem. I was too busy at work and too buggered afterwards to face my misbehaving Mac. Went trout fishing Sat & Sun and have now restored my life-balance.

I think we're nearly there, strangely all works when in normal view, but recurs when saved, reopened and the view changed to page. All very confusing.

Thanks, Rory