Scroll Lock in Excel | How to Turn ON (Enable) / OFF (Disable) Scroll Lock

Scroll lock in excel occurs when we press the scroll lock button in our keyboard or from the virtual keyboard, normally when we press the down arrow key from any cells it takes us to the next cell below it but when we have scroll lock on it drags the worksheet down while the cursor remains on the same cell, to disable scroll lock we can turn it off from the keyboard or from the virtual keyboard.

Excel Keyboard Scroll Lock

In excel in order to move fast from one cell to another, select a range of cells, go to the end of the last used cell in the worksheet and many other things require keyboards arrow keys. I hope you have experienced these arrow keys that don’t move at all sometimes. Yes, I have experienced it as well. This is usually because of excel Scroll Lock in key in your keyboard.

In this article, I will show you how to deal with such scenarios in excel.

What is Scroll Lock?

You must be thinking what the hell scroll lock is? If the scroll lock is switched on by accidentally, then you must have spent so many minutes to figure out why your arrow keys are not functioning to move easily in the worksheet.

Take an example of me, I have closed the workbook, in fact, I have restarted my computer to figure out what’s wrong with my keyboard arrow keys. I have noticed all the other keys are working except the arrow keys. I have spent a considerable amount of time figuring out this issue.

After so many days I came to know that the problem is not with the arrow keys but with the SCROLL LOCK option in the keyboard.

Excel Scroll Lock is a simple key that makes your keyboard arrow keys stagnant. If you press down arrow key you can notice the excel spreadsheet is moving down but it is not selecting any of the cells in the sheet. You can select by your mouse but not with your arrow keys.

Usually, we see the cells changing with the arrow key movement but if the scroll lock is turned on and you do not know this then you will be frustrated to find out the issue with your keyboard.

In this article, I will show you how to deal with such situations, how to turn on or turn off scroll lock key in your computer and most importantly how to turn on and turn off scroll lock key in your laptop.

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How to Find Out Whether Scroll Lock in Excel is ON or NOT?

There are multiple methods to find whether the SCROLL LOCK in excel is on or not.

You can download this Scroll Lock Excel Template here – Scroll Lock Excel Template

Method 1: The moment you experience the situation of arrow keys not moving in your excel spreadsheet then you need to check the arrow key option.

If this key is turned on then you will see a light next to the CAPS LOCK indicator.

This looks as easy as you think. But if you are working with a laptop keyboard you may or may not find excel scroll lock key in your keyboard. You need to use a different technique only.

Method 2: The second method is you need not look around whether the excel SCROLL LOCK is on or not but you can easily find out in the excel spreadsheet itself.

Excel status bars show the immediate calculation like Average of numbers, Sum of numbers, Count of selected cells and many other things.

Similarly, this will show whether the excel scroll lock is on or not. But on at the right-hand bottom of the spreadsheet rather on the left-hand bottom of the spreadsheet.

If the status bar showing the word SCROLL LOCK then that means scroll lock option is enabled. If your status bar does not show this then your SCROLL LOCK is not turned on.

How to Turn OFF Scroll Lock in Excel?

There are two ways you can turn off the scroll lock in your excel.

#1 – Turn Off Scroll Lock with Normal Key Board

Turning Off Scroll Lock is the easy-peasy job. This works exactly the same as your CAPS LOCK & NUMBER LOCK.

You just need to press your scroll lock button once to turn it off. There is no secret to it and you will scroll lock light indicator goes off as soon as you press the Scroll Lock key.

#2 – Turn Off Scroll Lock with On-Screen Key Board

You know what turning off SCROLL LOCK isn’t that straight forward in your laptop. Some of the laptop keyboards do not have Scroll Option in the regular keyboard.

If you see the above image there is no Scroll Lock option available straight away in the keyboard. In this kind of situation, we need to use the ON SCREEN KEYBOARD. In order to activate the On-Screen key Board (OSK) follow the below steps.

Step 1: Press Window + R key together.

Step 2: You will see this below dialogue box. You need to type OSK here.

Step 3: Now press the OK button. You will see ON SCREEN KEYBOARD.

Step 4: You can notice the ScrLk key is turned on with a blue colored key indication. You need to press this button with your mouse key to turn off. Once you hit this button blue color will go off.

Things to Remember

Windows + R is the shortcut key to open the RUN option in windows.
Once the RUN dialogue box is opened you need to type OSK to activate the ON SCREEN KEYBOARD.
The status bar indicates whether the excel scroll lock is turned on or not.