Excel not scrolling smoothly or properly? Enable Excel smooth scrolling

Microsoft Excel is a great spreadsheet-making tool. You can use Excel to create and manage large amounts of data. While using Excel, some users have experienced slow or choppy scrolling in Excel. If Excel is not scrolling smoothly or if you experience choppy scrolling in Excel, you can try the solutions provided in this article to fix the problem.

Why does Excel not scroll smoothly?

There might be many reasons why Excel is not scrolling smoothly. According to some users, the issue occurs when the Hardware Graphics Acceleration is enabled. In addition to this, the corrupted Office files may also cause this problem. You may experience the following scrolling issues in Excel:

• Choppy or slow scrolling
• Excel jumps cells while scrolling

If you are experiencing slow or choppy scrolling in Excel, disabling the Hardware Graphics Acceleration in Excel will help. Apart from that, there might be a third-party add-in causing the problem. You can identify such an add-in by starting Excel in the Safe Mode. We have explained some troubleshooting tips below that will help you get rid of this problem.

There is a setting in Windows computers in which we can set the number of lines for the mouse scroll wheel. By default, it is set to 3 lines. This means that Excel jumps to the third row on every single scroll. For example, if the first cell in your Excel is 1, then after moving the scroll wheel at once, the first cell will become 4. This does not cause any trouble if you are working with the default height of a cell in Excel. But sometimes, a cell contains large data due to which you have to increase the cells’ height. In this case, you will experience issues while scrolling.

To fix this issue, Microsoft introduced a smooth scrolling feature for larger cells in Excel. This feature is currently available in Microsoft Office 365 and insider and beta builds of Windows OS. The users with other versions of Microsoft Office can try some general fixes to deal with this problem. You can zoom out the Excel to stop jumping cells while scrolling. Another fix to this problem is to change the mouse scroll settings. The steps are as follows:

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Change the View by mode to Large icons.
3. Click Mouse. This will open the Mouse Properties window.
4. Select the Wheel tab.
5. Decrease the number of lines for Vertical Scrolling from 3 to 1.
6. Click Apply and then click OK.

Do note that the above settings will slow down the scrolling speed on your Windows computer. One more fix that you can try is to disable the animations on your Windows computer. To do so, open the Performance Options window and uncheck the Animate controls and elements inside windows option. The detailed steps for this are explained in this article.

Excel not scrolling smoothly or properly

If Excel is not scrolling smoothly on your system, here are some suggestions that will help you get rid of the problem. But before you begin, make sure that you are using the latest version of Microsoft Office. We suggest you manually update Microsoft Office and see if this fixes the problem. If this does not help, try the fixes provided below.

1. Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration in Excel
2. Disable animations on your Windows PC
3. Troubleshoot Excel in Safe mode
4. Update your display driver
5. Repair Office

Let’s see all these fixes in detail.

Excel Scrolling not working

1] Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration in Excel

The Hardware Graphics Acceleration feature is developed to improve performance in Excel. But in some cases, users experience issues in Excel after enabling this feature. If you have enabled the Hardware Graphics Acceleration in Excel, disable it and see if it fixes the choppy or slow scrolling issue. The following steps will help you with that:

1. Open Microsoft Excel.
2. Open any spreadsheet or create a new one.
3. Go to “File > Options > Advanced.”
4. Scroll down to locate the Display section.
5. Select the Disable hardware graphics acceleration checkbox.
6. Click OK to save the changes.

2] Disable animations on your Windows PC

If disabling the hardware graphics acceleration in Excel did not solve your issue, turn off the animations on your Windows PC and see if it helps. The steps for the same are written below:

1. Click on Windows Search and type advanced system settings.
2. Select View advanced system settings from the Search Results. This will open the System Properties window.
3. Select the Advanced tab.
4. Click on the Settings button under the Performance section.
5. The Performance Options window will appear.
6. Uncheck the Animate controls and elements inside Windows option.
7. Click Apply and then click OK.

Turning off the above option in Windows will disable the visual effects for Taskbar icons, Start button, popup windows, etc.

3] Troubleshoot Excel in Safe Mode

One possible cause of this problem is a problematic add-in. To check this, troubleshoot Excel in Safe Mode. When you launch Excel in the Safe Mode, only the necessary add-ins remain enabled, and others remain disabled. This will help you identify the problematic add-in (if any). Follow the procedure explained below.

First, launch Excel in Safe Mode. Now, see if the problem persists. If Excel shows smooth scrolling in the Safe Mode, one of the add-ins disabled in the Safe Mode is the culprit. If Excel does not show smooth scrolling, one of the add-ins enabled in the Safe Mode may be the culprit. Let’s see both of these cases.

Case 1: Excel shows smooth scrolling in the Safe Mode

If you do not experience choppy or slow scrolling in the Safe Mode, one of the add-ins that are disabled in the Safe Mode is causing the problem. Now, go to “File > Options > Add-ins.” Select COM Add-Ins from the drop-down menu and click GO. Now, make a note of all the add-ins displayed in the Safe Mode. These add-ins are not causing any issues in Excel.

Now, close Excel and launch it in normal mode. Go to “File > Options > Add-ins.” Select COM Add-Ins in the drop-down and click GO. Now, disable the add-ins one by one except those which were enabled in the Safe Mode. Check the scrolling issue after disabling each add-in.

Case 2: Excel shows choppy or slow scrolling in the Safe Mode

If the problem also appears in the Safe Mode, one of the add-ins enabled in the Safe Mode may be the culprit. Open the COM Add-ins window by following the process explained above and disable the add-ins one by one. After disabling each add-in, check if the issue disappears.

The above process will help you identify the problematic add-in. Once you find the problematic add-in, remove it.

4] Update your display driver

One more thing that you can try is to update your display driver. The following steps will help you regarding this.

1. Press the Win + X keys and select Device Manager.
2. When the Device Manager appears on your screen, expand the Display adapters node.
3. Right-click on your display driver and select Update driver.
4. Now, select Search automatically for drivers. Let Windows update your display driver.

Read: Fix Word, Excel, PowerPoint has run into an error.

5] Repair Office

One possible cause of the problem is corrupted Office files. If this is the case with you, repairing Office will fix the problem. First, run a quick repair. If it does not help, run an online repair.

How do I fix slow scrolling in Excel?

If you are experiencing issues with Excel, make sure that you are using the latest version of Microsoft Office. If scrolling in Excel is slow or choppy, disabling the Hardware Graphics Acceleration in Excel and turning off the animations in Windows can help.

Sometimes, third-party add-ins also cause problems. To check this, troubleshoot Excel in the Safe Mode. If nothing helps, you should repair Office.

Enable Excel smooth scrolling by installing this update

Microsoft will soon be releasing an update to enable even smoother scrolling in EXcel. This update includes two important improvements:

• Excel is now smoother during scrolling when using either the mouse wheel or the scrollbars (touchscreens and touchpads already scrolled smoothly).
• You can stop scrolling partway through a row or column, and Excel won’t force you to go any further than you want (no more snapping to grid).

The update is presently available to Office Insiders running Beta Channel or Current Channel (Preview) Version but will be released to the Stable version soon.

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