Unpredictable Cursor Movement with Arrow Keys after Text Entry

[BooMai]

Say I enter text in a cell and then want to move to the next cell to the right by hitting the right-arrow key. Sometimes I type the text, hit the key and cursor goes to the next cell. Other time, I type the text, hit the key and nothing happens - I have to hit the right-arrow key again to make the cursoer move. It’s random. It can happen differently in the same cell, it’s not related to the text entered, it’s just annoyingly random. Does anyone know how to fix it? I don’t care what it does - whether it needs one click or two, as long as it does the same thing every time.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Version: 24.2.5.2 (AARCH64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: bffef4ea93e59bebbeaf7f431bb02b1a39ee8a59
CPU threads: 12; OS: macOS 14.6; UI render: Skia/Metal; VCL: osx
Locale: en-GB (en_GB.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

[EarnestAl]

The Tab key always works regardless of whether the cursor is at a point where you might select another cell to add to the equation

[BooMai]

Thanks Earnest, but it doesn’t really answer my question. I navigate (up, down, left, right) with the arrow keys and I’d like to understand how to make the right-arrow work consistently. I also don’t understand what has “the equation” got to do with the way the right-arrow key works.

[EarnestAl]

As far as I can see

• If you have selected a cell then the arrow keys will take you to another cell
• If you are editing a number in a cell and you press F2 (toggle Cell edit mode) then arrow keys will take you to another cell
• If you are editing a formula in a cell and you press F2 then arrow keys will take you to another cell but adds that cell reference to the original cell
• Tab or Enter definitely takes you out of edit mode

More keyboard shortcuts at Shortcut Keys for Spreadsheets

[mikekaganski]

In my testing, when I focus a cell (no matter empty or already having a content), and start typing without entering edit mode first (so this overwrites the content), then pressing an arrow will work as movement to another cell (if I’m in A1, arrow-up or arrow-left would stop editing, but the A1 will be still focused, naturally). On the other hand, if I press F2 to enter the edit mode (again, no matter if it’s empty or already having a content), then arrow keys only move caret inside the cell (and hitting an arrow key again doesn’t change cell). I don’t know if it’s intentional.

In formula mode, this is similar, just typing over focused cell would allow to add other cells’ references, while F2 would disallow that.

Tested on Windows (maybe it matters).