Toolbox gone funny

[Ken McLennan]

G'day there One & All,

I'm currently suffering a slight problem which is probably more
rightly belongs in another group, however it's affecting my Excel
development so I'm posting it here in the hope that one of the experts
(or anybody) can assist.

While working on my Excel application I've built several UserForms
with various controls on them. Nothing unusual there, but over the last
few weeks (I've only been able to play with my pooter for an hour or so
on sporadic occasions recently - the joys of moving house) I've been
writing code to get the forms to work the way I wanted them to and
haven't needed the toolbox.

During that time I think I've installed something which has loaded
some kind of ActiveX control library but I can't recall what I may have
done. Regardless, when I went to construct my next UserForm in the VBE I
found that my ToolBox contains no working icons. The Object Selector -
the arrow that points up & left - is in every icon space except the
second. That one shows an upper case A - from memory, the Label tool,
and then the rest of the tool grid is filled with Object Selector
arrows. All except the 'A' and the next arrow are selected. Ie, they've
got the little depressed box around them. Oh, and the tooltip for the
'A' consists of '[][][][]a' (replace the square brackets with the little
rectangle that usually indicates a control character, and then put a
dash over the top of the 'a'). Everything else works as usual except for
the toolbox in the VBE. The Controls Toolbar in Excel itelf is fine.

I've not been able to find the problem listed anywhere with a
google search, but then searching for "Excel", "Toolbox", and "Arrows"
brings up thousands of hits. I've not been able to narrow it down
sufficiently to be of any use. The terms are too general. I've tried
using double quotes and various combinations of descriptions of the
problem, but I either get thousands of hits, or none. Various newsgroup
archives on the Google site didn't help either. Nor did the Microsoft
site.

There's probably a plethora of resources, but I can't determine
the criteria on which to search. I believe the problem is ActiveX
related and there's probably a corrupted .ocx file, but I've no idea
which one. I've tried the Office repair utility without success. Then
uninstalled and reinstalled Excel. Then uninstalled and reinstalled
MSOffice. Again without success.

Has anyone come across this before? I don't really want to
reinstall Windows just to get it working again. Any ideas?

Windows Professional XP, Excel 2002 (10.2614.2625)

See ya,
Thanks for listening,

 

[K Dales]

What happens if you right-click and choose "Additional Controls" - do you get
the list of controls? Are all the "Microsoft Forms" controls checked off in
the list? Those are the standard controls included so they should be
selected.
--
- K Dales

G'day there One & All,

I'm currently suffering a slight problem which is probably more
rightly belongs in another group, however it's affecting my Excel
development so I'm posting it here in the hope that one of the experts
(or anybody) can assist.

While working on my Excel application I've built several UserForms
with various controls on them. Nothing unusual there, but over the last
few weeks (I've only been able to play with my pooter for an hour or so
on sporadic occasions recently - the joys of moving house) I've been
writing code to get the forms to work the way I wanted them to and
haven't needed the toolbox.

During that time I think I've installed something which has loaded
some kind of ActiveX control library but I can't recall what I may have
done. Regardless, when I went to construct my next UserForm in the VBE I
found that my ToolBox contains no working icons. The Object Selector -
the arrow that points up & left - is in every icon space except the
second. That one shows an upper case A - from memory, the Label tool,
and then the rest of the tool grid is filled with Object Selector
arrows. All except the 'A' and the next arrow are selected. Ie, they've
got the little depressed box around them. Oh, and the tooltip for the
'A' consists of '[][][][]a' (replace the square brackets with the little
rectangle that usually indicates a control character, and then put a
dash over the top of the 'a'). Everything else works as usual except for
the toolbox in the VBE. The Controls Toolbar in Excel itelf is fine.

I've not been able to find the problem listed anywhere with a
google search, but then searching for "Excel", "Toolbox", and "Arrows"
brings up thousands of hits. I've not been able to narrow it down
sufficiently to be of any use. The terms are too general. I've tried
using double quotes and various combinations of descriptions of the
problem, but I either get thousands of hits, or none. Various newsgroup
archives on the Google site didn't help either. Nor did the Microsoft
site.

There's probably a plethora of resources, but I can't determine
the criteria on which to search. I believe the problem is ActiveX
related and there's probably a corrupted .ocx file, but I've no idea
which one. I've tried the Office repair utility without success. Then
uninstalled and reinstalled Excel. Then uninstalled and reinstalled
MSOffice. Again without success.

Has anyone come across this before? I don't really want to
reinstall Windows just to get it working again. Any ideas?

Windows Professional XP, Excel 2002 (10.2614.2625)

See ya,
Thanks for listening,

 

[Ken McLennan]

G'day there K Dales,

What happens if you right-click and choose "Additional Controls" - do you get

Well, I tried it and there was a loud explosion...

OK, not funny. However I did get the list of controls and
nothing was checked except the Label control. I recall now that I tried
right clicking when I first discovered the problem and nothing happened
at all. This time though, it brought up the list.

the list of controls? Are all the "Microsoft Forms" controls checked off in
the list? Those are the standard controls included so they should be
selected.

That solved the problem for me. As I said, there was only the
Label control checked. Now I've checked those you mentioned and all is
well. I had to delete all those arrows I mentioned, but it's now back to
normal.

Thank you very much for your advice. I doubt I'd have found it if
you hadn't pointed me at the solution, although it seems obvious now. I
just wonder what caused the controls to become unchecked. Oh well. At
least I know how to fix it if it should happen again.

Thanks once more. I appreciate your responding to me.

See ya