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Comment by cm2187 | Hacker News Reader

Then how do you suggest you commit the change then (which is much more commn than adding tabs to a formula)? Hopefully not some combination of keys.

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[Ctrl]+[Enter] would be awesome. Or just a double enter would work. Or clicking on the sheet somewhere.

I don't want Excel to change the default behavior. The way it works now is the right way for most people. I just want to be able to enter a mode where I get to freely edit the formula as if it were in a text editor, then exit that mode when I'm satisfied. Whether that is some checkbox option buried in the settings ("Options > Formulas > Working with formulas"), or an F-key, I don't care.

CTR+ENTER is already taken. Select a range of cells, press F2, enter your formula, CTR+ENTER applies and fills that formula to the whole range (very useful).

Oof. I actually use that frequently as well. Okay, okay, How about this? My wished-for option would just be to swap the behavior of [Enter] and [Alt]+[Enter].

Normally the first one commits the formula, the second one inserts a newline. I want to reverse that and make a naked [Enter] insert the newline, and the [Alt]+[Enter] commit the formula.

I think shift+enter for new line would be a better choice if you were to highjack an existing shortcut. Probably barely used by anyone and it would be consistent with a line break shortcut in word/powerpoint and elsewhere.

Committing a formula needs to be a simple shortcut because it has to be used by the least technical users. You don't want to create a "how to exit VIM" mess in a retail product.

You're right, I don't want to change defaults. In fact, this whole back and forth reminded me that AutoHotKey exists, and I'm actually running it already, and I have the power to make this change myself. So I did!

    #if IsExcelFormulaBox()                ; Whenever the formula edit box has focus
    Tab::Send {Space}{Space}{Space}{Space} ; insert four spaces when I hit [Tab]
    $!Enter::Send {Enter}                  ; commit the formula with [Alt]+[Enter]
    $Enter::Send !{Enter}                  ; insert a newline with bare [Enter]
    #if

does what I want, with the helper function:

    IsExcelFormulaBox() {
        ControlGetFocus, F, A
        return (F="EXCEL<1")
    }

Clocking into another cell?

Do you mean clicking? Using the mouse, really?

Beside clicking on a cell already has a meaning, it inserts the address of the cell you are clicking on in the formula.

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