Tip of the week # 655
20 May 2021


Horizontal scrolling and other useful things you can do with your mouse wheel (Microsoft Excel) *

Back in 2005 I wrote that "Most modern mice now have a mouse wheel between the left and right button." ( See tip_136.html.) One wonders what else was modern in 2005 that we now take for granted. But I digress ... the mouse wheel. I bet you use it to scroll through your document. Or perhaps you hold down the CTRL key and roll you wheel to zoom in and out?

So what's this tip about? Well, following 181 votes Microsoft has introduced horizontal scrolling. (With thanks to Debra Dalgleish for being this week's tip inspiration and for doing the digging to find the announcement, made on 11 August 2020.)

Here's how:

  1. Hold down CTRL and SHIFT and roll the mouse wheel towards you (down) to move to the right
  2. Hold down CTRL and SHIFT and roll the mouse wheel away from you (up) to move to the left

It doesn't work in Excel 2010, but following last week's request it turns out most of you have already upgraded. (Thanks for letting me know!)

But not to alienate those of you who haven't upgraded, herewith the links to tips that describe other things you can do with your mouse wheel ...

Related tips

  1. Using your mouse wheel to display text larger or smaller - tip_180.html
  2. Reset your browser's zoom level - tip_384.php
  3. Different ways to close your browser tabs - tip_339.php
  4. Different ways to open a link in a new browser tab - tip_357.php

And the odd one out ...

Don't use your mouse to scroll - tip_409.php


* Unless stated otherwise this tip is written for Microsoft 365 desktop apps and Windows 10 users, but might also be useful in Office 2010, 2013 and 2016.