We have lots of spreadsheets that have lists of numbered sound files for an educational app. We use spreadsheet features such as "fill down" for the numbering, and we often use formulas to check whether contents of cells are the same when edits are made. We have the text associated with the sound in one column, and the corresponding translations into other languages in other columns. We will then send the spreadsheet with the English text for translation, and will receive it back with the translations populated via email.
Unfortunately, the cells are often large with lots of text. Scrolling is very difficult, because the cell is often clipped by the screen edges, and when you try to scroll, it jumps to the next cell, so you can never see the full cell contents.
Is there a way to scroll the document in either OpenOffice Calc or MS Excel to scroll – not by cell, but instead per amount of pixels (smooth scrolling)?
Thanks in advance for your guidance.
Best Answer
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.