UI Explorer unable to find selector on cell level for Excel 2013

Why UI Explorer is unable to find selector on cell level for Excel 2013?

UI Explorer is unable to find selector on cell level for Excel 2013. When hovering over a cell, the entire worksheet is highlighted:



This is an Excel issue/limitation. Excel 2013 creates an actual cell when the text editor is open within the cell, or when the cell contains text. It can be checked by taking the below steps:

  1. Write some text into a cell, even a space will do the trick.
  2. Hover over that cell and you will notice that the cell is accessible/visible.
  3. Use inspect.exe tool, with UIA framework, to inspect the worksheet and you will notice that only the cells that are visible, are the ones that contain text. Inspect.exe tool can be downloaded from Windows 10 SDK and it is located under \bin\<version>\<platform> folder.

The changes can still be made within an Excel 2013 sheet though, by using the Excel Activities.

Note:- We will be able to get selectors for the Excel cells in Office 2016 and above