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Edit directly in cell not working.

Anonymous
2025-04-03T15:55:44+00:00

I know this is similar to an older thread, but the solution there (updating the version of Excel) is irrelevant here.

When I double click a cell, I do not get a cursor to edit within the cell.

Instead, I have to go up to the formula bar, which is inconvenient and annoying.

Typing when a cell is selected will replace the content there, but I usually need to be able to EDIT, not REPLACE.

In Preferences>Edit, "Edit directly in cells" is checked. There are no add-ins installed and i have restarted the mac several times but the problem insists

Excel Version 16.95.4 (25040241)

365 License subsription

Mac OS Sequoia 15.3.2

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | MacOS

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-04-05T20:06:29+00:00

    As Bob said, it's usually best to bear the pain and migrate to a new user account.

    The first question that comes up is "What can make a user account go bad?" One thing I can think of that could cause this situation is a file system that needs repair. That leads to my first piece of advice: run a robust disk maintenance utility. Use it to verify the startup volume and all attached volumes. Before doing any additional troubleshooting, make sure the file system is OK. Another possibility is a bad memory block. Mac OS will automatically not use such a block, but anything stored in that memory segment is no longer available.

    The second question is now that you have isolated the problem to a faulty Mac OS user account, "What should I do about it?"

    You might reinstall Mac OS, but do NOT choose the erase option:

    Reinstall macOS - Apple Support

    Now decide what to do with the problem user account. You might try to fix it. If you are an expert and/or are lucky, one or two people who had a problem with their user account managed to figure out what was wrong and fixed it.

    You know that everything works in a new user account. The installation of Office is fine. If it were me, I would migrate my files to the new user account and then delete the bad one in Mac OS System Preferences and be done with it.

    Before transferring your document files, copy your user data from our old user account to the new one. Use the corresponding file locations when copying files to the new account’s locations. Here’s the default location of your templates and user files, but be aware that you may have set other locations in Word > Preferences > File Locations.

    To get to the Library folder, in Finder, in the Go menu choose Library.

    Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content.localized

    This link explains how to transfer files from one user account to another

    https://kb.iu.edu/d/amoe

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-04-03T17:02:17+00:00

    I'm running the same Office/OS versions as what you indicate but cannot reproduce the issue. On that basis you might try a fundamental step first: In Preferences, clear the check then Restart the program. Return to reset the check then restart Excel again.

    If that doesn't resolve the problem add a New Standard User Account, sign on as the new user the see whether the issue exist when running Excel. The result helps determine what to do next.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-04-03T17:25:43+00:00

    Thanks Bob,

    I did all that.

    Under the New Standard User Account, excel worked just fine. However, logging back to the admin/main account, the problem persists.

    Note, this is a personal mac air and i'd prefer to have only one account.

    Please guide further.

    Apprecaite your support

    Regards

    Taremwa

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-04-03T19:09:05+00:00

    OK, thanks for the follow-up.

    Reluctance to move to a new user account is understandable but in many cases it's the easiest solution. Hopefully it won't be necessary.

    In the original account, Quit all Office programs. Then in Finder navigate to:

    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel.plist

    Delete the .plist file then launch Excel to see if the issue persists.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-04-03T19:32:26+00:00

    Dear Bob,

    The problem persists. Please advise

    Regards

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