annoying problem with excel mouse pointer

[martinstan]

Hi
I've spent 2 hours on this tonight and cannot figure it out. please can someone help and it's so simple it's embarassing. All I want to do is move a row above another row but when I select the row and place my mouse pointer over the thick black border to move it, it stays as a white cross and doesn't change to a white pointer arrow. When I then click it just selects a cell again. I'm using excel 2002. Thanks

 

[Randy1234]

I would cut the row and and insert above the row where you want it. For example, say you are working with rows 16, 17 and 18, and you want to put row 18 above 17.

Step 1) Select row 18 by clicking on the row number and "cut" it.

Step 2) Select row 17 and "Insert" "Cut Cells"

You can use the tool bar or just right click the mouse to select these options. Any cell formulas should adjust accordingly. Hope this helps.

 

[martinstan]

Hi Randy
thanks for your reply.I'll certainly give it a go but I think I may have finally stumbled over the solution to my problem. There's a tick box in tools/options/edit/allow cell drag and drop. By selecting a row and then shift clicking on the heavy black border it seems to allow drag and drop without replacing the target cell.

 

[Randy1234]

Very cool...I learn something new every day.

 

[mike1955]

drag and drop works when the cursor changes to an arrow as it is placed on the edge of the cell. If it a single cell just watch for the change and then press the left mouse to pick it up and move to the next place. If it is more than 1 they must all be part of the highlighting.

 

[martinstan]

Hi Mike
Thanks for that. I think my problem was that drag and drop had somehow been unchecked within tools/options/edit/ so the curser wasn't changing to an arrow. Once drag and drop is checked if the shift key isn't depressed in the drop process, then from what I can see, the cell replaces the target cell rather thanmoves. Is this right?? I'm no expert.
Cheers

 

[mike1955]

I never press the shift key on drop - it's displacing cells is not something I like to do.

Regards
mike

 

[combo]

martinstan,
another useful option is to drag with right mouse button, a popup menu with drop options is then displayed

combo

 

[martinstan]

Now that is cool! Thanks for that combo. works a treat.
martin