Deselect Cells While Keeping Other Cells Selected
I would like to be able to deselect cells without having to cancel my whole selection and start over again selecting cells in order to make sure I do not select the offending cell.
Numbers for mac has this functionality. You can hold down the "Command" key to select non-contiguous cells and then if you make a mistake and want to deselect a cell, you just click on the offending cell while still holding down the "Command" key. I really would like to see this ability come to Excel.
Laeryn Evans
shared this idea
You can now deselect cells in Excel for Mac version 16.×. This is only for O365 subscribers. To update to version 16, go to the Help menu and choose Check for Updates.
To deselect, you can CMD+Click on selected cells. CMD+Click again to reselect.
Thanks – Steve K [MS Excel]
12 comments
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Jimmy
commented
More than 15 years I waited for this function that arrived with o365 update from summer 2018.
What a year to be alive -
Rick Lawrence
commented
I actually rolled back to version 15.41 to overcome many issues and loss of functionality that seem to accompany more recent updates. I just wish I could roll back to Office 2008 but this and other superior earlier versions of Office apparently wont run under the latest OS.
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C.B. Edgar
commented
I have removed Microsoft Office version 16.14.1 and rolled back to version 16.13.1 (180523). Excel is now working _much_ better for me. It is not just deselect that I was having trouble with. There is also something weird going on with using "return/enter" and "tab" to move around within a selection. The installer for version 16.13.1 still seems to be available from Microsoft, and it worked great for me. I may have been able to Time Machine back a version, but I am much happier that I have an official installer package.
The installer is located at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac/. I installed Microsoft_Office_2016_16.13.18052304_Installer.pkg. I hope this helps someone.
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Rick Lawrence
commented
This issue is such a pain. Being able to deselect cells is such a basic and necessary function.
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C.B. Edgar
commented
As David comment a couple days ago, the bug is back. I am using Mac OS Sierra (10.12.6) and Excel (16.14.1). I reluctantly upgraded Microsoft Autoupdate and then the rest of the Office apps a couple of days ago after getting nagged several times a day. Every since, I have been having issues. This is the first one I have isolated and researched. Deselect is a pretty critical function for me.
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David
commented
I had been utilizing this feature for some time, and it just stopped working this week. I am logged in to Office 365 on Mac High Sierra (10.13.1) and Excel (16.14.1). Shading gets darker when trying to deselect. Can anyone advise on this?
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Jason Littrell
commented
Just updated to version 16.11 (180311) and CMD + click works now. I can even command and drag to select cells to deselect. Thanks, Excel Team!
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Jason Littrell
commented
CMD+Click still doesn't work; the cell is selected multiple times and the selection shading gets darker. I'm on a Mac (Sierra 10.12.6) using Excel 16.10 (180210), and my license says "Office 365 Subscription". The "What's New in Excel" screen that appeared after I updated and opened Excel even stated:
*Deselect Cells*
CMD+click to deselect some cells from your selection.Is there anything that I need to do to get it to work?
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Anonymous
commented
This is a feature (actually more basic principle of working with software in general) that is present in nearly every software but not in Excel.
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Anonymous
commented
This would be a great help.
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GratefullyDyed
commented
Really hoping to see this simple addition soon. Every time I use excel this annoys me at least once and really slows down my workflow. I move extremely slow and overly careful to make sure I only click cells that are needed.
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Alex
commented
Strangely enough, this appears something still to be fixed even for Excel for Windows Desktop.