Format cell will not appear

[Tim Marciniak]

Hello,

I have a budget spreadsheet in E2k that I need to update. I can change al
the numbers and formlas but if I select Format Cells the dialog box will not
appear. I cannot find a single cell anyware in that workbook that works. The
budget sheet has some grey area to the righ. I tweaked it last year and I
can't remember what I did. Please help

Tim

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Tim,

Maybe the sheet is protected. Tools, Protection. If you see Unprotect
sheet" it was.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I've seen a similar thing twice (I think). Both times the workbooks were not
created in excel. One was a workbook that used to be a LOTUS 123 file and the
other time, the workbook was created by a program called Crystal Reports.

But the difference was I could find a cell that allowed the formatting dialog to
pop up. (Maybe you could go further down/right to look for one.

Once I found that adjacent cell I could expand my range to include that cell and
format the whole range the way I wanted. Then I'd come back and correct the
formmatting for that "sacrificial" cell.

Can you try copying the data/formula to a new worksheet--maybe it would be
better just dumping the old version and rebuilding a new one.

=========
Can you get the format dialog to appear for any workbook/worksheet/range?

If no (and the worksheet isn't protected like Earl asked), maybe you could start
excel in safe mode.

Close excel
windows start button
Run
Excel /safe

Then open your workbook to see if that allows you to format.

Opening in safe mode means that lots of things won't load--including the
customized toolbars.

If it helps, then maybe your *.xlb file is bad.

close excel
Windows Start button
Find
search for *.xlb (look in hidden folders/hidden files--just in case)
Rename them to *.xlbOLD.

Restart excel normally and check it out.

If it worked, dump the *.xlb file. You will have to rebuild any customized
menus.