Durjoy Paul
As a regular Excel user, it is a must to have smooth scrolling with the mouse wheel in Excel. It is more necessary when you deal with a big dataset. It will give you a smooth appearance to scroll the whole dataset. This article will provide you with all the details about why smooth scrolling with a mouse wheel is important and its benefits. I hope you enjoy the whole article and gain some useful knowledge.
What Is Smooth Scrolling?
When you press the mouse scroll wheel, you can easily scroll it up and down without any hesitation. This is called smooth scrolling. In Excel, you will face snap to grid behavior without smooth scrolling. That means if you left your cursor in the middle, Excel would take it to the left top corner of the dataset automatically.
How Does It Work?
When we have a smooth scrolling feature, we can easily move or scroll in rows or columns. Even if we have to deal with big data, smooth scrolling helps to make a faster scrolling. It also keeps the cursor in the same position as when you left the cursor in the middle of scrolling.
- We take a dataset that includes some valuable information about donations.
- Next, if you scroll with the mouse wheel it will go to the lower portion of our dataset. But the advantage we get from smooth scrolling is that it remains in a similar position even after we left the cursor in the middle of the dataset.
- Whereas in the previous scrolling system, it will automatically take the cursor to the top left corner.
Read More: How to Move Up and Down in Excel
Available Versions of MS Excel with Smooth Scrolling
Smooth scrolling is currently available in the beta version of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft will try to release it to the additional channels in the future. All the developers try to find an effective solution where no one problem can appear for the addition of smooth scrolling. Microsoft developer team keeps a close eye on how to develop smooth scrolling in the most effective ways to reduce user problems.
Why Is Smooth Scrolling Important?
If you use the previous Excel version, you will eventually notice that when you scroll halfway through any row and column and want to leave the cursor there. Excel will automatically take the cursor to the top left corner instead of leaving it in the middle of the cell. This is very annoying when you work with a big dataset and try to compare the two columns.
Sometimes you have a situation when the column is larger than your screen width. In that case, if you want to reduce the column width, you won’t find it when scrolling snaps you to the left. That is why Microsoft Excel provides smooth scrolling to have a better user experience. Smooth scrolling can create a better working environment where you can easily deal with a big dataset and at the same time, it reduces the tedious problem to take the cursor at the beginning.
Benefits of Smooth Scrolling
Smooth scrolling with a mouse wheel in Excel provides two different benefits through which users may have found a better working environment.
- One is to enable smooth scrolling while using a mouse or scrollbar. Smooth scrolling makes the scrolling far more speedy compared to the previous Excel version.
- The second and the most important one is basically to enable scrolling halfway through the row or column without taking the cursor to the top left when you leave the cursor.
Disadvantages of Smooth Scrolling
Many of you may assume that smooth scrolling needs a few lines of code to enable it. But you are completely wrong on this. To enable smooth scrolling, we may face some notable disadvantages.
- The first one is the window stalling.
- Next, It may cause row enlargement.
- It may have some copy, paste, and sorting issues.
- Users may face some problems regarding browsing. They can’t browse one pixel at a time.
- If the users don’t have a proper mouse or touchpad, they may face some serious adjustment issues.
Read More: How to Scroll One Row at a Time in Excel
Similar Readings
- How to Stop Excel from Scrolling to Infinity
- Horizontal Scroll Not Working in Excel
- How to Repeat Rows in Excel When Scrolling
- Viewing Multiple Workbooks: Synchronous Scrolling in Excel
- How to Stop Excel from Jumping Cells When Scrolling
Smooth Scrolling in Older Versions of MS Excel
Some of the users still use the older version of Excel. So, they might have to face the scrolling issue. It is really annoying when you don’t see some portion of your column. It is really difficult when you are using a small screen.
To eliminate these problems in the older version of Excel, you may use the following processes.
1. Adjusting Column Width
The first and most useful approach is to resize column width. When you have a large column than your screen, you have to adjust the column width.
- First, select the column B.
- Next, right-click on the column header.
- It will open up the Context Menu.
- From there select Column Width.
- In Excel, Column Width can be 255 as the highest.
- Change the value to your preference.
- Finally, Click on OK.
2. Adjusting Zoom Feature
Another useful option is to use the Zoom feature. Users can zoom out the dataset and then change the column width. This method can be useful.
- First, you need to zoom out your dataset by pressing Ctrl and then scrolling the mouse to zoom out.
- You can have some zoom features.
- Here, the (-) sign means zoom out and the (+) sign denotes zoom in.
- After zooming out the window, you can have the column header.
- Now you can change the column width easily.
- After finishing the task, you can zoom in to go to the previous appearance.
Read More: How to Tab to Certain Cells in Excel
3. Utilizing Vertical and Horizontal Scroll Bar Sliders
After using the zoom feature and column width, if you still have a similar issue, you need to utilize Vertical and Horizontal Scroll Bar Sliders. These arrow buttons will help to move to the beginning and end of the text.
Read More: [Solved!] Vertical Scroll Not Working in Excel
Things to Remember
- Check the mouse wheel to have a better experience.
- Check the Excel version before doing work with a big dataset. Otherwise, it will create frustration in the future.
Conclusion
Smooth scrolling with a mouse wheel in Excel has some advantages and disadvantages. But you reduce some unwanted frustration while dealing with a big dataset. Microsoft Excel gives us a smooth scrolling experience in its newer format. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comment box.
