Cell Editing - can I stop cursor movement from changing cells by default?

Is there any way to make cell editing work like it does when you hit F2 by
default?

If you just start typing in a cell and then want to use the standard cursor
controls for text (e.g., Ctrl-arrow keys to move forward or back a word, home
or end to jump to beginning or end of formula or text), Excel instead
intercepts these and moves the selection to another cell, forcibly stopping
you from editing the cell.

On the other hand, if you hit F2 first, everything works as it should. You can
also hit F2 mid-edit to toggle the behavior, but if you can't remember which
mode it's in, you may be toggling back to the cell controls when you hit F2.

I never want it to work as it now defaults. If I want to switch cells, I can
hit tab or enter. I don't want the cursor controls to jump cells while I'm
editing a cell. I couldn't find any settings in the Options pages to control
this. Am I just looking in the wrong place? Please tell me there's a way to
adjust this.

Thanks for any suggestions,
Colin

Hi
see your post in public.excel

--
Regards
Frank Kabel
Frankfurt, Germany


Colin Higbie wrote:
Is there any way to make cell editing work like it does when you hit
F2 by default?

If you just start typing in a cell and then want to use the standard
cursor controls for text (e.g., Ctrl-arrow keys to move forward or
back a word, home or end to jump to beginning or end of formula or
text), Excel instead intercepts these and moves the selection to
another cell, forcibly stopping you from editing the cell.

On the other hand, if you hit F2 first, everything works as it
should. You can also hit F2 mid-edit to toggle the behavior, but if
you can't remember which mode it's in, you may be toggling back to
the cell controls when you hit F2.

I never want it to work as it now defaults. If I want to switch
cells, I can hit tab or enter. I don't want the cursor controls to
jump cells while I'm editing a cell. I couldn't find any settings in
the Options pages to control this. Am I just looking in the wrong
place? Please tell me there's a way to adjust this.

Thanks for any suggestions,
Colin