Cannot Customize Excel Toolbar

[Sue T.]

I have been trying to customize the standard toolbar to accept close, exit,
etc., but once I close excel and go back in the changes are not saved.

All my other "office" programs work fine, except for excel.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Customized changes to toolbars are saved in a file with an extension of *.xlb.

You could lack the authority to save to this file, but my bet is that you have
multiple *.xlb files and the one you're changing is not the one that excel
finally uses.

I'd do this:
Close excel.

Use windows start button|search to find all the *.xlb files and delete them.
Remember to look in hidden folders, too.

Then reopen excel and make a change to the toolbar (just to test). Then close
excel and reopen. If the change stuck, finish up your customizations.

If you can't find *.xlb using windows start button|Search, then you could use an
old DOS command to search and delete them.

Windows Start button|Run
type:
CMD
(to get to the Command prompt)

C:
(to get to the C: drive--change this to the drive that excel is installed on)

cd\
(to get to the root directory)

dir *.xlb /s

The /s says to search subfolders, too.

Make a note of the locations of the found files and then delete those files.

 

[Sue T.]

I tried that and it didn't work. I had I.S. over here yesterday and they
couldn't figure it out.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I think you did something wrong when you tried it.

Maybe you could give some details of what you tried and how it failed.

 

[Sue T.]

I deleted the .mlb files. There were 2 for excel. I went back and made sure
they were gone and they were. I then went to Excel and tried to customize
the toolbar again. Again when I went out of the program and back in again,
the customization to the toolbar was gone.

 

[Sue T.]

I meant .xlb files.

I think you did something wrong when you tried it.

Maybe you could give some details of what you tried and how it failed.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Did you search using Windows start button|search or via the DOS command?

I'm guessing that you missed one.

I deleted the .mlb files. There were 2 for excel. I went back and made sure
they were gone and they were. I then went to Excel and tried to customize
the toolbar again. Again when I went out of the program and back in again,
the customization to the toolbar was gone.

 

[Gord Dibben]

What part "didn't work"?

The finding *.xlb part?

The changing permissions to save part?


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Sue T.]

Where do I change permissions? all of the *.xlb files were deleted.

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you are in a corporate environment, your IT staff may have imposed their
rules on you--not allowing you to make changes to some folders.

If you're not in a corporate environment, then this probably doesn't apply.

Did you search for *.xlb files using that old DOS command?

Where do I change permissions? all of the *.xlb files were deleted.

 

[Sue T.]

What I finally did was to make a custom toolbar and it works. I will try the
dos command, but right now I got a workaround that is working.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Sue T.]

I tried the dos command, but that showed only the most recent toolbar. All I
can figure is there is a glitch somewhere. IS couldn't figure it out either.

 

[Dave Peterson]

The customized toolbar changes for the new toolbar and the changes to the
standard toolbar are kept in the same *.xlb file.

I'm changing my bet with this new info.

I'm betting that your change to the standard toolbar is really being saved ok.
But when you reopen excel, you have another workbook/addin that's resetting that
standard toolbar--deleting the changes you've made.

If you're interested in finding the workbook/addin that's doing the resetting,
you can do some detective work:

Chip Pearson has some notes on how to diagnose startup errors:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/StartupErrors.htm

And Jan Karel Pieterse has more notes:
http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/StartupProblems.asp

Essentially, you'll turn off all the addins/startup workbooks and then open
excel. Make a change to the standard toolbar. And then turn on each addin
(closing and reopening) one at a time to find the culprit.