Can't edit comments

[foxcole]

My coworker is using a spreadsheet with comments, but can't edit the comment
box. 'Edit comment' is disabled, as is the 'unprotect sheet' command. The
workbook is not protected, and other sheets in the workbook are fine--it's
just a problem with this one sheet.

We've looked everywhere, but haven't found any settings or options that
would affect this. Any ideas?

TIA!

--
FoxCole

"Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing."

Robert Benchley (about his response to someone who said at a dinner party,
"Say something funny, Mr. Benchley.")

 

[foxcole]

Woops--meant to mention that we use Office 2000.

 

[Dave Peterson]

This seems a stretch--but I couldn't get excel to disable that "edit comments"
option on the rightclick menu--no matter what I did.

Any chance that there's a macro that's stopping you. If you open the workbook
with macros disabled, does it work?

And I'm confused about the "unprotect sheet" command. If the worksheet is not
protected, then you shouldn't see "unprotect sheet".

Tools|protection|protect sheet
makes more sense to me.

Am I looking at the correct menu items (on the rightclick menu and on
tools|protection)?

 

[foxcole]

We finally concluded that the protection setting on that sheet was a result
of corruption, so copied the content into a new sheet (having to first switch
to another sheet to insert a new one--the protection on the corrupt sheet
didn't allow us to insert from there) and deleted the original. The new sheet
behaves as it should. I wish I'd thought of that sooner.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this, though!

--Fox

 

[Dave Peterson]

Thanks for posting your workaround.

We finally concluded that the protection setting on that sheet was a result
of corruption, so copied the content into a new sheet (having to first switch
to another sheet to insert a new one--the protection on the corrupt sheet
didn't allow us to insert from there) and deleted the original. The new sheet
behaves as it should. I wish I'd thought of that sooner.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this, though!

--Fox

 

[foxcole]

We accidentally discovered something, just now. In a workbook with many
worksheets, protecting one worksheet appears to randomly apply protection to
some of the other sheets as well. On some of them, the 'unprotect sheet'
command is available, but others exhibit the behavior mentioned in the
original post.

I don't see a pattern to it. Ever heard of this before?

 

[Dave Peterson]

No. I've never heard of anything like that.

But there are tons of questions asking how to protect multiple sheets at one
time. A macro solution is often given.

Any chance you have a "helpful" macro sticking its head in where it doesn't
belong.

If you open excel in safe mode, you can disable all macros. And do a little
testing.

Close excel
windows start button|run
excel /safe

We accidentally discovered something, just now. In a workbook with many
worksheets, protecting one worksheet appears to randomly apply protection to
some of the other sheets as well. On some of them, the 'unprotect sheet'
command is available, but others exhibit the behavior mentioned in the
original post.

I don't see a pattern to it. Ever heard of this before?