Excel: Why is the Scrollbar Slider Suddenly Tiny?

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Problem: I have a worksheet with two or three screens of data. I can easily grab the vertical scrollbar and move to the top or bottom of the data set. Something happened, and now the huge scrollbar slider has become really tiny. Further, if I move it just one pixel, instead of jumping to the next screen of data, Excel will move to row 4500.

  1. Normally, the slider will take you to the last row with data.

    Strategy: Someone pressed End+Down Arrow key to move to row 1048576.

  2. Accidentally activate a cell at the bottom. The slider is tiny.

    You can often restore the size of the slider by moving it completely to the top of the spreadsheet. If this does not work, then there is one rogue cell way below your data that has become activated. Perhaps someone pressed the Spacebar or applied text formatting or something. Follow these steps:

    1. Note the last row that you believe to contain data.
    2. Press the End key and then press the Home key. Excel will jump to the intersection of the last active row and the last active column. This row is usually way beyond the row that you believe to be the last row.
    3. Delete all rows from the bottom of your data set to the rogue last row.
    4. Save the workbook. The scrollbar slider will return to full size.

    Saving the workbook is the key. Even after you delete the extra rows, Excel will not restore the size of the scrollbar.