The Power of Scroll Lock

Q. What does the Scroll Lock button on the keyboard do? I’ve looked everywhere in the Help sections and I can’t even find a mention of the button.

A. Although it was useful in the old DOS days, the Scroll Lock key has fallen into disuse—except for Excel, where it performs a very valuable function. For example, say you’re working in Excel and you’re in the middle of writing a formula in cell B2; then you realize you need some information to complete the formula—and that information is in cell IV65536 (which, by the way, is the last cell Excel recognizes)—way at the other end of the worksheet. If you move your cursor to the distant location, you’ll lose what you’re working on in B2. But if you press Scroll Lock, you can move anywhere in the file, using your arrow keys, and your cursor will remain on B2. Now isn’t that neat?