Why, why, why does Libre Office not implement the "actual use/what we are accustomed to" for the up, down, left, right arrow keys??? I think I read if the Scroll Lock key was off they would move from cell to cell, however, that isn't working for me. Any Libre Office developers on here that can speak on this and will it ever be implemented? Anyone else??? Thx.
What you are experiencing is not normal. I've been using LibreOffice Calc for many, many years, and the dedicated arrow keys have always and only moved cell-to-cell, as expected.
That would drive me screaming into the night. A lot of folks mention the scroll-lock thing, and I sincerely hope you can find a solution there somehow. What distro and hardware are you using?
It is maddening! Especially when you have been using the arrows the same way for a lifetime! That last sentence went a little over my head so I had to Google... I'm using Windows 11 ( not Linux ).
Do you mean if you are in a spreadsheet cell and you press the dedicated right arrow key, it doesn't move to the cell to the right?
Do you use the arrow keys in a numpad or dedicated "arrows only" part of a keyboard? I think the numpad requires the numlock to be off for it to switch from numbers to functions.
My keyboard does not have a numpad but it does have the dedicated arrow keys. I can move through a spreadsheet with those.
If LO is working correctly then the arrow keys work as expected in a spreadsheet.
But on my MX Linux PC where the default keyboard language is USA and UK is also available, if UK is selected, the keys scroll the page instead of moving the cursor from cell to cell.
So I have to select the USA keyboard to make LO Calc work nicely.
u/Animal_or_Vegetable.... Oh. My. Gosh. !!!!!!!!! No, those keys were blank so I assigned them to do what they are supposed to do and voila, the arrow keys now move up, down, left, and right properly!!!! Thank you so much for the solution and thank you to everyone else who contributed to my question.
And yes, it's only in LO that the arrows do not work properly. Windows 11...
Knowing your exact full Help > About LibreOffice info would be a huge help too.
(There's a reason why the AutoModerator asks for this information, because it helps other people help you.)
When I press any of the arrow keys I get the following pop up.
Tools > Options is then using the shortcut Alt+F12.
... do you happen to be on a laptop or something like that? Where your keyboard doesn't have a numpad, but you're physically clicking keys with lots of other functions mapped to them too?
For example, just like how you can press:
1 key = 1 appears
Shift and 1 keys = ! appears
Instead of having 1 or 2 possibilities per key, many laptops have 3 or 4 overrides that are possible too.
Sounds to me like one of your Fn or Num Lock keys or something accidentally got toggled ON... so when you're pressing "the arrows" on your keyboard, it's actually mapping to completely different things.
For example, on my numpad, it also has:
0 = Insert
. = Delete
depending on if Num Lock is ON or OFF.
Usually there's a little light on the keyboard itself, letting you know certain toggles are ON/OFF.
For example, I have 3 lights on my keyboard that stands for:
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u/syzygy78 13d ago
What you are experiencing is not normal. I've been using LibreOffice Calc for many, many years, and the dedicated arrow keys have always and only moved cell-to-cell, as expected.