The RubeTube

October 12, 2006

WTF is Scroll Lock for??? FINALLY, THE ANSWER

Prepare yourself for the shock of a lifetime.

Open Microsoft Excel 2003.
Make sure that Scroll Lock is turned off.
Press the down cursor key. Verify that you have moved from cell A1 to A2. Press up to go back to A1.
Turn Scroll Lock on. You should see "SCRL" appear in the lower-right part of the window, where "NUM" and "CAPS" would appear if they were turned on.
Now press the down cursor key. Better yet, try all the cursor keys.
Repeat step 5 until the novelty wears off and you are no longer amazed.

Amazing! Verified to work only on Excel 2003. Discovered it by accident; it's listed as an actual feature though (see "Use arrow keys to move through a worksheet"). To me it seems like the Excel developers took pity on poor old Scroll Lock and gave it a sense of purpose.

Let me know about the other uses that you've discovered for the ultimate useless button. Long live Scroll Lock!

Labels: amazing, MS Office, scroll lock

3 Comments Add a comment Posted at 12:10 AM

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