Excel File occasionally opens to Gray Screen

[Dave in Dallas]

I have an excel file used by over 100 people. It contains about 10 tabs and
is opened and closed dozens of times per day on each machine. It is not a
shared file, each user has their own copy. All machines use Excel 2003.
OCCASIONALLY, and only on a FEW random machines, the file opens to a gray
screen. File Preview shows no data, the file does show an Excel tab on the
taskbar, and Excel reports "ready". Right clicking the taskbar tab shows
Minimize/Maximize options are grayed out. "Restore" simply enlarges or
contracts the gray Excel window. We have discovered a "workaround" of opening
a new blank workbook in excel. The grayed out file can then be maximized from
the taskbar and it functions perfectly. The blank workbook file can then be
closed without saving. The "grayed out file" can then be closed and saved.
When reopened, it will normally be fine until some random time in the future
when it opens as gray. Most users are very basic and this stops them dead in
their tracks, resulting in a support call. The "Ignore other applications"
referred to in other posts is not an issue as this happens randomly and the
balance of the time the file opens perfectly and all other Excel files open
and close perfectly......... This problem has occurred from local and
networked file storage locations, or if the file is opened from an email
attachment. Again 99% of the time the file opens and functions perfectly.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

I have an excel file used by over 100 people. It contains about 10 tabs and
is opened and closed dozens of times per day on each machine. It is not a
shared file, each user has their own copy. All machines use Excel 2003.
OCCASIONALLY, and only on a FEW random machines, the file opens to a gray
screen. File Preview shows no data, the file does show an Excel tab on the
taskbar, and Excel reports "ready". Right clicking the taskbar tab shows
Minimize/Maximize options are grayed out. "Restore" simply enlarges or
contracts the gray Excel window. We have discovered a "workaround" of opening
a new blank workbook in excel. The grayed out file can then be maximized from
the taskbar and it functions perfectly. The blank workbook file can then be
closed without saving. The "grayed out file" can then be closed and saved.
When reopened, it will normally be fine until some random time in the future
when it opens as gray. Most users are very basic and this stops them dead in
their tracks, resulting in a support call. The "Ignore other applications"
referred to in other posts is not an issue as this happens randomly and the
balance of the time the file opens perfectly and all other Excel files open
and close perfectly......... This problem has occurred from local and
networked file storage locations, or if the file is opened from an email
attachment. Again 99% of the time the file opens and functions perfectly.

You have landed in a Macintosh Excel group. However, the file may be opening
Off screen or hidden. Check the windows - unhide option to see if the file
is there. If the file shows normally in the Windows menu, try arranging the
windows, this should bring it back to the correct size and location.

 

[Russ DiMartino]

Hey Dave,
I had the same issue for an end user at my company. I tried all the fixes
mentioned in other forums like you did and they didn't help. I was about to
do a repair of XP when I went into the file one more time. What I thought was
unusual was that the print option was grayed out as well as tools\options. I
stumbled upon the Window menu and saw a feature that said "unhide". After I
clicked it I was given a pop up window showing two versions of the workbook
that were hidden. I opened them both and the data was all there! Needless to
say the end user was very happy she didn't have to re-do days of work. Hope
this helps!

Russ