Windows 10: Touch keyboard won't stay on number entry in Excel

I am having an issue specificly with the Mircosoft Surface's touch screen keyboard (the tablet touch keyboard, not the accessibility on-screen keyboard). The keyboard switches back to the alphabet keyboard screen (which has no numbers) after using the numeric touch keyboard screen to enter numbers into a cell in Microsoft Excel and tapping enter or arrowing to a different cell. It makes entering numbersinto large amounts of cells very tedious. This appears to only be an issue with Excel. It does not happen in Word or any other program. It's as if Excel is telling the touch keyboard to switch back to the qwerty input screen after entering a value in a cell.


This did not happen before some recent updates. I received both Office and Windows updates right before this issue started, so I don't know which one caused the issue.


Someone else asked the same question here and was told to change numlock settings. This has nothing to do with NUMLOCK as that applies to physical keyboards. When using the physical keyboard, the numlock does not change while I'm entering numbers.


Someone else asked this question in the office forum (since it only happens in Excel), and they were directed to the Surface forum.

Would someone please be willing try to reproduce this issue yourself with a Microsoft Surface tablet with Excel with the touch keyboard, with all the current Windows and Office updates (the touch keyboard stayed on numeric entry until a recent update)?

:)

 

Windows 10 touch keyboard has stopped appearing

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft community.

A quick question before we proceed:

What is the KB number of the update you have installed?

To know the KB numbers of the failing updates, follow the below steps:

• • In the search box, type Update, and then, in the list of results, click Windows Update.
  • In the left pane, click View update history.

I suggest you to follow the methods below and check if it helps:



Method 1:



I suggest you to follow the steps provided below to enable touch keyboard when there is no keyboard attached to the device.

• 
  Press the Windows key
  or click on Start icon.
  
• 
  Click on Settings.
  
• 
  Click on Devices.
  

• Click on Typing.
• Scroll down and toggle on: Automatically show the touch keyboard in windowed apps when there's no keyboard attached
  to your device.

Method 2:

Follow the below steps and check if it helps.

1. Right click on the Task bar and select Show Touch Keyboard Button.

2. Open the Keyboard and close it (just to check if it’s working).

2. Next click on Action center and select Tablet Mode.

3. Once you are in Tablet mode, again Right click on the Task bar and select Show Touch Keyboard Button.

5. Open the Key board and check if it’s working in Tablet mode. Next check if it’s available on the task bar in both desktop and tablet mode.

Hope this helps. If the issue remains unresolved, please get back to us and we would be happy to help.

 

Touch keyboard pops up at login

If the above steps didn't work, we suggest that you disable the Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service. Please follow these steps:

• Click on Start.
• Type Services, and then press Enter.
• On the right pane, look for Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service. Double-click on it.
• Locate the Startup Type drop down, and change it to Disabled.
• Click on Apply button to save changes.
• Click on OK button to close the Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service
  window.

Let us know how it goes.

 

Touch keyboard pops up at login

Thanks for the help, this method worked.