Is there a way to scroll, by pixel, instead of by cell, in either Excel or OpenOffice Calc?
Solution 1:
I see you've gotten a lot of unhelpful answers, and this one probably adds to that list. It is not possible to do this in Excel. There was a conversation with an Excel MVP in 2013 on this topic that confirms it.
You might be able to mitigate the problem by using the zoom feature. Or (if you are feeling more adventurous) use Excel's macro function to add features that will help you do the task you actually want to do. You are presumably not just scrolling for the fun of it, you probably want to look for something. A button that handles the searching etc. for you might solve the 'underlying issue'.
The web based Excel can view the spreadsheet by scrolling pixelwise, but if you try to enter text into a cell, the scroll position snaps to the cell's edges. This might be a workaround, if you are just viewing.
Finally, there is always the possibility that you can export the data to a better tool (e.g. PDF), or store it in a different tool that still lets you access it over Excel for those times when you need to. But we are shading into a discussion of databases and that's another topic entirely.
In the meantime vote for the feature to be implemented by Microsoft.
- Open the mentioned conversation, and under the question click I have the same question. No registration or login needed for this.
- Open the corresponding UserVoice item, and click Vote. The site will ask for an email address. The address is not verified, so a dummy email will do.
Solution 2:
Yes, you can scroll smoothly in Excel if you drag with the middle mouse button.
Solution 3:
I had the same issue. Chosing Excel because of the controlled cells for text. My solution was to keep the heights of the cells in the sheet, thus scrolling floats smoothly. The cells with text were made by merging many cells. That way i have big text cells, but the scrolling is based on normal small cells.
Solution 4:
I tend to click and drag the vertical scrollbar in this situation. It's not ideal as I have to hold the mouse button down to prevent it jumping around to "snap to cell" while reading, but I find it easier to control than the middle-mouse-button-drag technique.
Solution 5:
An alternative, to solving the problem of smooth scrolling directly, can be that you enlarge the field at the top, where the respective part of the current cell is shown.
There you can concentrate on the cell's content also enjoying line breaks, while navigating through the table using the arrows on your keyboard.
Since a cell's content is limited to 255 characters, enlarging that field sufficiently does not require losing sight for navigating the table.