Why am I getting a two-headed horizontal arrow cursor in Help?

[J Seay in Tennessee]

Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.

 

[David McRitchie]

bring up the windows task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
remove msohelp both of them. Then bring up Excel

Usually seems to happen if you brought up Excel using a web browser.
during your current windows session.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

 

[J Seay in Tennessee]

I did as you said. Brought up task manager, there was no msohelp. I did a
search of my hard drive for msohelp and found 2 files - msohelp.chm and
msohelp.exe. Deleted both of those. Brought up Excel. Opened the Help
screen and got the two-headed horizontal arrow again.

J. Seay in Tennessee

bring up the windows task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
remove msohelp both of them. Then bring up Excel

Usually seems to happen if you brought up Excel using a web browser.
during your current windows session.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.

 

[David McRitchie]

I hope you can restore what you deleted from your recycle bin, or rename
files that you rename instead of delete when you have a problem with something.

Please tell me they are available. Otherwise you will have to reinstall
Excel over the top of the existing same version so that it copies in
missing file..

The task manager lists running programs, the .middle tab is
Processes, and you should use the "end process" key to terminate the item.
So that wasn't your problem. Though, I think, missing help files would
cause the same problem.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

I did as you said. Brought up task manager, there was no msohelp. I did a
search of my hard drive for msohelp and found 2 files - msohelp.chm and
msohelp.exe. Deleted both of those. Brought up Excel. Opened the Help
screen and got the two-headed horizontal arrow again.

J. Seay in Tennessee

bring up the windows task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
remove msohelp both of them. Then bring up Excel

Usually seems to happen if you brought up Excel using a web browser.
during your current windows session.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.

 

[J Seay in Tennessee]

Reinstalling the files was absolutely no problem. They are in place as they
should be. Thinking back, I remember this problem arising after I downloaded
some updates from Microsoft's site. Unfortunately, those updates are not
able to be uninstalled and even if they were, I can't remember which one was
installed right before the problem occurred.

I did end process but only after I had brought up Excel and opened the Help
window. Msohelp did not appear until then. That did not help either, but I
appreciate you taking the time to help.

J Seay in Tennessee

I hope you can restore what you deleted from your recycle bin, or rename
files that you rename instead of delete when you have a problem with something.

Please tell me they are available. Otherwise you will have to reinstall
Excel over the top of the existing same version so that it copies in
missing file..

The task manager lists running programs, the .middle tab is
Processes, and you should use the "end process" key to terminate the item.
So that wasn't your problem. Though, I think, missing help files would
cause the same problem.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

I did as you said. Brought up task manager, there was no msohelp. I did a
search of my hard drive for msohelp and found 2 files - msohelp.chm and
msohelp.exe. Deleted both of those. Brought up Excel. Opened the Help
screen and got the two-headed horizontal arrow again.

J. Seay in Tennessee

bring up the windows task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
remove msohelp both of them. Then bring up Excel

Usually seems to happen if you brought up Excel using a web browser.
during your current windows session.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.

 

[David McRitchie]

What seems to happen is the msohelp.exe stays running even though
Excel is down, then when you bring up Excel and help you get tso of the guys.

Do you by any chance have the office assistant turned on (pesky animations for help)
OFF2000: Help Does Not Appear When Clicking Help Topic
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q239913/

---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Reinstalling the files was absolutely no problem. They are in place as they
should be. Thinking back, I remember this problem arising after I downloaded
some updates from Microsoft's site. Unfortunately, those updates are not
able to be uninstalled and even if they were, I can't remember which one was
installed right before the problem occurred.

I did end process but only after I had brought up Excel and opened the Help
window. Msohelp did not appear until then. That did not help either, but I
appreciate you taking the time to help.

J Seay in Tennessee

I hope you can restore what you deleted from your recycle bin, or rename
files that you rename instead of delete when you have a problem with something.

Please tell me they are available. Otherwise you will have to reinstall
Excel over the top of the existing same version so that it copies in
missing file..

The task manager lists running programs, the .middle tab is
Processes, and you should use the "end process" key to terminate the item.
So that wasn't your problem. Though, I think, missing help files would
cause the same problem.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

I did as you said. Brought up task manager, there was no msohelp. I did a
search of my hard drive for msohelp and found 2 files - msohelp.chm and
msohelp.exe. Deleted both of those. Brought up Excel. Opened the Help
screen and got the two-headed horizontal arrow again.

J. Seay in Tennessee

:

bring up the windows task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
remove msohelp both of them. Then bring up Excel

Usually seems to happen if you brought up Excel using a web browser.
during your current windows session.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.

 

[J Seay in Tennessee]

No, I don't have the office assistant turned on. I hate that feature. I
turned it off after about an hour after originally installing Office 2000 5
years ago. I'm glad to hear to MS got wise and got rid of it in its newer
offerings.

I just checked the task manager and found that when I don't have help
running, msohelp.exe doesn't appear. Of course, when I do msohelp.exe does
appear in processes, but when I close help, msohelp.exe immediately
disappears from the task manager process window.

I also noticed that my cursor does not appear as a two-headed horizontal
arrow whenever the cursor is on the Contents tab of the help screen. Of
course, that is not a text box.

There is also something else weird going on. I cannot resize the Help
screen whether it is not maximized. Even the resize command has no effect on
it. Interestingly, the cursor changes to a two-headed horizontal arrow
before it reaches the text box and remains so until after it goes beyond the
bottom box of choices (if there were any choices). Also, it turns into a
two-headed horizontal arrow when it enters the left side of the help screen
below the tabs from the top or bottom.

It's beyond me. I guess I'll just continue to use the books I have for any
help I need. But again, thanks for your time. I'm going to accept this as a
currently unsolvable kink in the program.

J Seay in Tennessee

What seems to happen is the msohelp.exe stays running even though
Excel is down, then when you bring up Excel and help you get tso of the guys.

Do you by any chance have the office assistant turned on (pesky animations for help)
OFF2000: Help Does Not Appear When Clicking Help Topic
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q239913/

---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Reinstalling the files was absolutely no problem. They are in place as they
should be. Thinking back, I remember this problem arising after I downloaded
some updates from Microsoft's site. Unfortunately, those updates are not
able to be uninstalled and even if they were, I can't remember which one was
installed right before the problem occurred.

I did end process but only after I had brought up Excel and opened the Help
window. Msohelp did not appear until then. That did not help either, but I
appreciate you taking the time to help.

J Seay in Tennessee

I hope you can restore what you deleted from your recycle bin, or rename
files that you rename instead of delete when you have a problem with something.

Please tell me they are available. Otherwise you will have to reinstall
Excel over the top of the existing same version so that it copies in
missing file..

The task manager lists running programs, the .middle tab is
Processes, and you should use the "end process" key to terminate the item.
So that wasn't your problem. Though, I think, missing help files would
cause the same problem.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

I did as you said. Brought up task manager, there was no msohelp. I did a
search of my hard drive for msohelp and found 2 files - msohelp.chm and
msohelp.exe. Deleted both of those. Brought up Excel. Opened the Help
screen and got the two-headed horizontal arrow again.

J. Seay in Tennessee

:

bring up the windows task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
remove msohelp both of them. Then bring up Excel

Usually seems to happen if you brought up Excel using a web browser.
during your current windows session.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.