How to Scroll One Row at a Time in Excel (4 Methods)

The scrolling in Excel is different from other tools and web pages. When you scroll in Excel, the number of rows scrolling at a time may vary depending on your computer settings, row height, or way of scrolling. However, sometimes you might want to specify the number of rows you want to scroll at a time while presenting your data.

In this Excel tutorial, you will learn 4 ways to scroll one row at a time. After finishing the tutorial, you will be able to scroll one row at a time, whether you are using the mouse wheel, keyboard keys, or Excel buttons.

The below overview GIF shows how you can scroll one row at a time with different row heights in Excel.

Why Is Excel Not Scrolling One Row at a Time?

There might be several reasons behind your Excel is not scrolling one row at a time. The major reasons are:

Row Height is manually specified to be too small or too large rather than fit to data.
Mouse settings on your computer are set differently.
Merged cells can also affect scrolling frequency in your worksheet.

There could be other reasons why Excel isn’t scrolling as you want it to. Try these methods to fix the issue in your situation.

4 Methods to Scroll One Row at a Time in Excel

You can scroll one row at a time using vertical scroll arrows, keyboard keys, changing your mouse settings, and using Excel VBA.

Consider 21 employee data in the below image that you want to scroll through one row at a time. You will find their ID in column B, names in column C, residency area in column D, total income in column E, and total costs in column F. So, you could say the total data is in the range B4:F25.

To scroll through data one row at a time in Excel, follow these methods:

1. Using Vertical Scroll Arrows

To scroll one row per mouse click, use vertical scroll arrows on the vertical scroll bar on the right side of the Excel window.

Using vertical scroll arrows on the vertical scroll bar is specifically useful when you can not scroll with the mouse wheel. No matter how tall your rows are, the vertical scroll arrows scroll one row at a time snapping to every row grid. However, it won’t let you use smooth scrolling in your worksheet.

To scroll one row per one click using the vertical arrows, follow the steps below:

Open your Excel file.
Place your cursor on Down Arrow under Vertical Scroll Bar Slider.
Left-click on the Down arrow.

Thus, you will see one row scroll down.

Similarly, click the scroll-up arrow to scroll a row up at a time. Now you can scroll one row at a time using the Excel arrow buttons.

2. Using Keyboard Keys

Another easy way to scroll one row at a time is by using the Up and Down arrows on your keyboard. It works similarly to vertical arrows.

If you have a larger row, Excel will scroll more to cover the row. However, the scroll result may vary based on whether your Scroll lock key is enabled or disabled.

Here are two cases of using the Up/Down arrow keys to scroll one row at a time in Excel:

Case 1: Using Up/Down Keys When Scroll Lock Is Disabled or Unlocked

The Up and Down keyboard keys with the Scroll Lock disabled can scroll a cell at a time. When you’re at the top of your data and press the down key, the selection moves one cell at a time. Notably, there’s no downward movement of the screen during this process.

After reaching the bottom of the screen, the screen starts scrolling down one row at a time.

To scroll one row at a time using the up and down arrow keys with the scroll lock disabled, follow the below steps:

Select any cell close to the Sheet Name bar. For example, cell B16.
Then, press the Down button once on your keyboard.
A row will scroll down.
Press the Down button further to move down into the data. With every press, a row will scroll down at a time.
Similarly, you can press the Up button to scroll up a row at a time.

As you can see, using this method to scroll has a limitation. If you select a cell above the sheet name bar, it scrolls through one cell until you reach the bottom of your screen. To overcome this limitation, you can enable the lock scroll first.

Case 2: Using Up/Down Keys When Scroll Lock Is Enabled or Locked

With the scroll lock enabled, when you press the Up or Down keys it will scroll row by 1 regardless of your selected cell position.

Follow these steps to scroll one row at a time using the up and down arrow keys with the scroll lock enabled:

Press the Scroll Lock key to enable it.
Then, press the Up or Down arrow keys on your keyboard.

As a result, Excel scrolls one row at a time.

Note: If you can not find the Scroll Lock key on the physical keyboard, use an on-screen keyboard. Type osk in your Desktop/PC search box to access the on-screen keyboard.

3. Changing Mouse Settings

If you want to scroll one row with your mouse wheel, you can change the mouse settings on your computer. Using the mouse wheel to scroll is very user-friendly if you have a smooth scrolling update on your Excel. In that case, you can limit your scroll frequency to 1 using the mouse settings on the Control Panel.

To scroll one row at a time while changing the mouse settings, follow the steps below:

Go to Search Engine of your Desktop/PC and search Control Panel.
Then, click Open.
In the Control Panel window, click Hardware and Sound.
Click Mouse under the Device and Printers. As a result, the Mouse Properties dialog box will appear.
Under the Wheel tab, choose The following number of lines at a time in the Vertical Scrolling section.
Now, reduce the number 3 to 1 and click OK.
Roll the mouse wheel.

You will see only one row scrolled down or scrolled up at a time. There are certain advanced gaming mouses where you can modify the mouse behavior to act specifically depending on your current running app.

Limitation: Though changing the mouse wheel seems like a proper way to scroll one row at a time, the scroll frequency may vary for larger row heights.

4. Using Excel VBA

To overcome the row height issues of the mouse wheel, you can also use Excel VBA to scroll rows by 1. You can create your own custom command buttons and make them work like scrolling buttons. Also, manually specify the number of lines you want to scroll if you need to change the scroll frequency. If you want to see scrolling in your data automatically after a certain period, using VBA is also applicable.

See the below scenarios to scroll one row at a time through Excel VBA:

Scenario 1: Manually Scrolling One Row with VBA Command Button

To embed VBA code on command buttons to scroll one row at a time, follow the below steps:

Go to Developer tab > Code group > Visual Basic to open the Visual Basic Editor.
Click Insert > Module.

Then, to scroll down one row copy and paste the VBA code below:

Sub Scroll_Down_One_Row()
    ActiveWindow.SmallScroll Down:=1
End Sub

Similarly, to scroll up one row insert another Module from the Insert tab and write down the following visual code:
```
Sub Scroll_Up_One_Row()
    ActiveWindow.SmallScroll Up:=1
End Sub
```
Now, click Developer tab > Controls group > Insert.
Select Button (From Control) to create a button.
Create two buttons and place them on your worksheets.
Right-click on a button and click Assign Macro.
Select a sub-procedure and click OK. Here, we selected Scroll_Down_One_Row.
Similarly, assign another sub-procedure to the other button. Here Scroll_Up_One_Row().

As a result, clicking the buttons will scroll up or down one row at a time. I have frozen the top 4 rows for a better view.

Note: If you don’t have the Developer tab in your Ribbon, you have to enable the Developer tab. You can also press ‘Alt+F11’ to open the Visual Basic Editor.

Scenario 2: Automatically Scrolling Down Rows After a Certain Period

Now, consider that you have an Excel file with lines filled with reviews for different items. You want to read these lines and scroll automatically at 1-second time intervals for 10 rows.

To make Excel VBA automatically scroll down one row at a time after a set time, do the following:

Click Developer tab > Controls group > Insert > Command Button (ActiveX Control).
Create two command buttons and place them on your worksheet.
Right-click on a command button and click View Code to create a new module for writing your code.

Enter the below VBA code:

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Dim i As Integer
    For i = 1 To 10
        ActiveWindow.SmallScroll Down:=1
        Application.Wait (Now + TimeValue("00:00:01"))
    Next i
End Sub

Similarly, for the other command button, insert the below VBA code:

Private Sub CommandButton2_Click()
Dim i As Integer
    For i = 1 To 10
        ActiveWindow.SmallScroll Up:=1
        Application.Wait (Now + TimeValue("00:00:01"))
    Next i
End Sub

As a result, if you click on the scroll down button, it will move down to one row at a 1-second time interval for 10 rows. Likewise, scroll up in the same way.

Download Practice Workbook

Download this practice workbook for practice while you are reading this article.

Scroll One Row at a Time.xlsm

Conclusion

The tutorial shows how to scroll one row at a time in Excel using 4 ways. Hopefully, you can now present your data applying them to scroll one row manually and automatically. If you have any questions or suggestions, please share them in the comments section.

Frequently Asked Question

What is causing Excel to scroll 10 rows at a time instead of 3?

Excel usually moves down three rows at a time while scrolling down with the mouse wheel. However, it depends on the row height. If the row height is too small, it might look like you’re scrolling more than three rows. Also, any touchpad software on your computer might cause this situation.

To fix this, change the mouse settings on your computer.

How to stop infinite scrolling to limit the visible area in Excel?

To stop infinite scrolling and limit the visible area in Excel, follow the below steps:

Click Developer tab > Visual Basic to open the Visual Basic Editor.
Click Insert > Module to create a module.

Insert the below VBA code:

Sub Stop_infinite_scrolling()
Dim mysheet As Worksheet
Set mysheet = ActiveSheet
mysheet.ScrollArea = mysheet.UsedRange.Address
End Sub

Click theRun button.

As a result, your scrolling will be fixed in your used range in the worksheet.

How to scroll one page at a time in Excel?

To scroll one page at a time in Excel, press the Page Up or Page Down keys on your keyboard.

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