Hit alt-e to see the Edit option depressed.
Hit alt-e again and edit won't be depressed.

You can look at all the toolbars to see if there's another icon depressed or hit
enter to see if it opens up a dropdown/menu/dialog....

(I'll bet dollar to doughnuts you've got two icons with the same accelerator
key.)

=========
If you want to remove the accelerator key from the other(s) items, you can:

Tools|Customize
Rightclick on the item
Remove the & (ampersand) from the Name

For instance:
&Edit
would become
Edit



simonc wrote:

This is with Excel 2000. The other Alt and letter combinations work, with
File menu, Insert menu etc but for some reason when I press Alt E it only
causes a rectangle to appear around the word Edit, but doesn't open the drop
down menu.

Does this suggest Alt E has somehow been associated with another command?
How could I check this? Or is there any other explanation?

For years I have been subconsciously pressing alt E S V to paste values into
cells and it's very disconcerting when this no longer works.

Grateful for advice

--

Dave Peterson