Microsoft Excel Undo Only Works Twice

Question

I am using Microsoft Excel 2003. A major irritant is that I am unable to use "undo" more than twice. Can you not use Undo more than 2 or 3 times or am I missing something? Are there any solutions to undoing more in Excel?

Answer 1

From Microsoft Knowledge base article 211922

1. Close any programs that are running.

2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.

3. In Registry Editor, expand one of the following registry subkeys, as appropriate for the version of Excel that you are running:

   Microsoft Office Excel 2007
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Options
   
   
   Microsoft Office Excel 2003
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Options
   
   
   Microsoft Excel 2002
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Excel\Options
   
   
   Microsoft Excel 2000
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Excel\Options
   

4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value. Select New Value #1, type UndoHistory, and then press ENTER.

5. On the Edit menu, click Modify.

6. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, click Decimal under Base. Type a value between 0 and 100 in the Value box, click OK, and then exit Registry Editor.

7. Start Excel. Excel stores an undo history for the number of actions that you specified in step 6.

Answer 2

As far as I know, Excel (2007) only allows undo twice while still editing a cell -- it's then basically toggling between the last edit and the previous cell contents. Going out of edit mode allows for normal undo behavior.

(I've sometimes experienced that undo applies to all open workbooks: change file A, change file B, change file A again, and then undo twice while file A is active: the last change in A and B are reverted, not the two changes in A.)