You can edit cells in Excel 2013 by selecting a cell and clicking inside the formula bar at the top of the window, or you can double-click a cell and edit the data directly in the cell.
But you might find that double-clicking a cell to edit the data is no longer working, and that you can only delete the existing data and enter it again if you need to edit it.
Since double-clicking a cell to edit data is such an intuitive thing to do for many Excel users, this behavior change can be a problem.
Fortunately, this is a setting that you can adjust through the Excel Options menu. Our tutorial below will help you find the necessary setting so that you can start editing directly in your cells again.
How to Edit Directly In the Cell in Excel 2013
The steps below are going to change a setting for Excel 2013. Once you adjust this setting, this behavior will apply to all files that you open in Excel 2013 unless you return to this menu and change the setting back.
Step 1: Open Excel 2013.
Step 2: Click the File tab at the top-left corner of the window.
Step 3: Click the Options button at the bottom of the left column.
Step 4: Click the Advanced tab in the left column of the Excel Options window.
Step 5: Check the box to the left of Allow editing directly in cells, then click the OK button at the bottom of the window.
You should now be able to return to your spreadsheet and double-click on a cell to edit the data contained within it.
Now that you know how to edit directly in a cell in Microsoft Excel, you can make it much easier to change data in your worksheets.
Do you have data that needs zeroes in front of it, but Excel keeps removing them? Learn how to keep leading zeroes in front of data in your cells in Excel 2013 if you are working with something like zip codes that might need that 0 digit.
Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.
After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.
His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.