Bloomberg add-in anomalies

[peter.loggie]

A discovery was reported at work today: a user has the Bloomberg add-in
(http://about.bloomberg.com/software/index.html - the DDE Server and
Excel Add-Ins file) installed on his computer, and Excel seems to have
been affected in two ways that he's noted so far:

1. When trying to apply a name to a range using the input area on the
top left of the workbook space, the input box kicks the user out after
a short while (as if the Esc key has been pressed)

2. When programming in the VBE, the Auto List Members box (the list of
properties etc that pops up as an aid after inserting a ".") pops up
only momentarily, again as if the Esc key has been pressed.

This only happens in the Excel VBE (not in any other Office
application), and the same does not happen when trying to input a
formula (i.e. this is not due to the Esc key on the keyboard being
jammed).

I tried this on three different PCs at work, running Excel 2003. One
had Bloomberg anywhere installed, one was a Bloomberg terminal, and
another had no access to Bloomberg - only the add-in. I have now just
tried this on a laptop with Excel 2000 installed, and the same problem
occurs.

Has anyone else experienced this? Bloomberg are presently denying all
responsibility and are falling back on the claim that nobody else has
reported such an issue. Try it out for yourselves!

Any suggestions?

 

[Nick Hodge]

Peter

I've not tried it, but it sound like Bloomberg is refreshing the data every
x seconds, which would 'take focus'. Is there a setting to refresh say
every hour?

You could also try to put something on the clipboard and see if the ability
to paste it disappears at the same frequency, as certainly pressing esc
would do that.

I stress I haven't looked at the add-in but suspect Bloomberg are at fault

--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
(e-mail address removed)
www.nickhodge.co.uk

 

[peter.loggie]

Thanks Nick,

Yep, it's the Bloomberg add-in. It runs a macro every x seconds and
that's the issue. The guys at Bloomberg (eventually) said they knew
about it - the "bug" was introduced a couple of versions ago. They
said they knew about it, but they figured that it wouldn't bother too
many users...

Anyway, they've now got the task of finding a way to get rid of the
bug...