Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 29, 2026)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Dave has a workbook that has a dozen worksheets in it. When working with ten of the worksheets he can use the scroll wheel on the mouse to scroll up or down. When working with the other two worksheets the scroll wheel will not scroll, however. Dave wonders what would cause this difference in behavior.
The most common cause of this issue is that the problem worksheet has frozen panes in it. When freezing panes horizontally, the top pane is literally "frozen" and cannot be scrolled. If the pane is large enough, it is possible to not even realize that the worksheet has a frozen pane.
The solution is to display the offending worksheet and, on the View tab of the ribbon, click the Freeze Panes tool. The tool acts like a drop-down list, displaying a few options. If one of those options is Unfreeze Panes, then click that option and the problem should be solved.
If there are no frozen panes on the worksheet, the only other possibility is that there is a macro that runs whenever the worksheet is activated. That macro may contain a command that limits the scrolling area or changes the settings that control the behavior of the mouse wheel. The only way to solve this potential cause is to take a look at your macro code and see if any of the statements exist to affect the scrolling area or mouse configuration.
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2022-09-24 11:26:29
J. Woolley
My Excel Toolbox includes the following dynamic array function to list all panes of the active window in four columns (Pane, ScrollColumn, ScrollRow, VisibleRange):
=ListPanes()
The following dynamic array function will list all properties of the active window (including freeze, split, and scroll information):
=ListWNProperties([SkipIgnored],[SkipHeader])
The following dynamic array function will list all properties of the active worksheet (including ScrollArea):
=ListWSProperties([SkipIgnored],[SkipHeader])
The following dynamic array function will list all application properties (including RollZoom):
=ListAppProperties([SkipIgnored],[SkipHeader])
In older versions of Excel you can use these dynamic array functions with the SpillArray function described in UseSpillArray.pdf.
The following formulas can also be used in older versions of Excel:
=VLOOKUP("ScrollArea",ListWSProperties(),2)
Cells outside the scroll area cannot be selected.
=VLOOKUP("RollZoom",ListAppProperties(),2)
When RollZoom is True, the scroll wheel will zoom (or scroll if Ctrl is pressed).
When RollZoom is False, the scroll wheel will scroll (or zoom if Ctrl is pressed).
See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/
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