add in, ribbon, tab menu problem

[Guest]

Hello all.
two weeks ago I'd contacted Ron deBruin about an issue that I'd had with an
add in ribbon tab menu that I did not want, and could not remove from my
ribbon. He gave very explicit instructions, and I've had two distinct
resolutions.
1- on my system, I followed his instructions and it has not returned. I.e.,
it's worked great.
2- On one of my colleague's system, I followed the same exact procedure, and
the unwanted add-in has consistently returned, regardless of what we try.

Today my colleague dropped by my desk to ask if I'd ever heard back about my
post to Ron, and after finding it, I remembered what we'd done, and how we
never went farther.

So.....

I have followed Ron's advice, and removed the xlb file from the appropriate
directory. The auto-replacement xlb file is now only 10kb in size-- before it
was 940kb.
I've checked the xlam files (using the UI Editor), and there are no
references-- that I can identify-- to show why this unwanted ribbon menu
keeps appearing after multiple attempts to remove it.
I've also looked in the VBA macros, one by one, looked using ctrl+f, and the
declarations pulldown, and found no references, or macros that would make a
menu.
Today, my colleague stopped by-- as mentioned-- and told me that he found an
option by which, if he right clicks on the unwanted tab, on a macro icon, it
allows for him to "delete the toolbar."
I thought this was strange, as you typically can't even modify the ribbon
menus by right clicking anywhere on them. Which I verified by trying it on
mine.
I asked him to demonstrate it for me on his system. He did, and upon seeing
it, I said-- delete it. After a few moments of discussing the implications,
he agreed, and did so.
The first thing that happens is that a warning window appears telling of
total loss to the menu. I told him to proceed. He did, and because there were
two rows on the tab, we did it twice, and after the second row departed, so
did the unwanted tab.
At this point we closed excel.
We then went into the appropriate directory and once again deleted the xlb
file.
We then opened excel again, and after a moment of looking for the xlam
add-in, the two tabs he'd made appeared, and alas.... so did the unwanted
tab! Argh.....!
We repeated this process again, and a third time. Still we received the same
results.
The unwanted tab keeps appearing.
I have two basic thoughts here.
1- somebody give me a shotgun....
2- it seems that because the unwanted tab appears when the two desired tabs
appear, it must somehow be connected to them.
I.e., if I go into excel options, and turn off the add-ins, both the tabs we
do want go away, as does the unwanted tab.
We then move the xlam files out of the directory they belong in, and reopen
excel. It then gives a warning window stating that the tab menus cannot be
found, and asks if we wish to delete them from the add-in directory-- to
which we respond in teh affirmative.
The process finishes, and no more tabs-- including the unwated one. All gone.
We then replace the add-in xlam files, reopen excel, go to excel options,
choose add-ins, and re-activate the tab menus we want. They appear as they
should. Then the unwanted add-in tab also appears.
Of course, we're then right back at the beginning.
1- has anyone else experienced this?
2- if so, how did you ultimately remove the unwanted tab?
3- if you haven't succeeded, have you blown up your computer yet? oops..
sorry. I just wanted to see how many others there were.
Thanks.

 

[Jim Rech]

Steve-

My sympathies.<g>

Now, we know that the "Add-Ins" tab only appears in Excel 2007 if a workbook
or an add-in creates, or brings with it, a commandbar, a menu, a menu Item
or a tool button.

Have you identified said workbook or add-in?

Proof: Start Excel in safe mode - From Start->Run enter "Excel.exe /s" (no
quotes, there is a space before the slash). (If more than 1 version of Excel
is installed enter the full path to Excel.exe along with its name.)

No Add-Ins tab because no files are loaded.

 

[Guest]

Hi Jim,
Thanks for the back door into excel.
We tried that on my colleagues system, and it worked accordingly.
Nothing but the basics.
Your thoughts on the "hidden" command bar/toolbar macro is my thought too.
Which was why I'd worked through all of his macros to make sure we did not
make a "personal woorkbook" macro that creates a menu.
we do however want specific tabs to be loaded.
The one we do not want has a bunch of buttons that we're not able to load
any macros to. Which is why we don't want it.
Any other ideas, or a continuance of this idea.

 

[Jim Rech]

Sorry but..

Can I take it from your answer that it is Personal.xls?

 

[Guest]

He does have a personal.xls, and I checked it from before. I guess I didn't
clarify that... sorry.
I'll go back and recheck it again.
I specifically started at his Personal.xls file, because I remember him
having it open up each time he would open excel. He'd given me a copy at one
point because he wanted us to use some of his macros for work we did for his
section. I remembered how irritating it was to deal with having two workbooks
open at the same time when I was only working on one.
Let's pick this back up in the morning, as I'm not there now.
Have a good evening.

 

[Jim Rech]

Start in Safe mode as before and do a File, Open on his Personal. If the
Add-ins tab appears we've proven the cause is in Personal (or perish the
though, a workbook Personal opens either by macro or by a 'reference' -
unlikely).

There are at least 4 ways a workbook can cause a button, say, to appear on
the Add-ins tab in Excel 2007 - a VB macro, an Excel 4 macro, attaching a
toolbar to a workbook and the Excel 5/95 menu editor. The last is totally
undetectable and unremoveable through the Excel UI (since Excel 95).

Any chance this particular Personal had its roots in the Excel 95 days?

Did you check for attached toolbars?

 

[Guest]

Ok Jim,
We did as you described, and it appears that this is indeed the problem.
It turns out that he has numerous Personal.xls files, and at least two of
them result in the add-in tab.

However, in going through the macro list in vba, we cannot identify anything
that would result in the toolbar.
What should I look for to remove this?
He says that he did not start making his own macros until the year 2000.
They could've still had office 97 then, but he believes it was office 2000. I
know that we just upgraded from 2000 to 2007 this past March, or April.
I'll ask him to give me a copy of all of them so I can go through them one
by one, and see what's what.
Thanks for your help.
Best.

 

[Guest]

Jim.
I think we've got it figured out.
I had him search his hard drive for all versions of his personal.xls files.
It turns out he had about 5 of them.
I then had him copy them to me, and we followed the same procedure as you'd
previously mentioned with each one.
I also checked my own hard drive and did the same.
I had four.
Once we determined which one's were "clean" I renamed then, and deleted the
others.
We're in the process of making the appropriate changes so that our new tabs
are "clean", and working properly.
I think for now, I'm going to consider this resolved, and if I find any more
issues along this line, I'll post anew.
Best regards,
And thanks again for your help. It definitely got me going in the right
direction.
SteveB.

 

[Jim Rech]

I'm going to consider this resolved

Excellent, Steve.