Can't Format Cells

[MT DOJ Help Desk]

Excel 2000

I have a worksheet where I am unable to format the cells. I checked the
protection setting, and the sheet is NOT protected. When I right-click on a
cell and select Format Cells from the context menu, nothing happens. It
doesn't even bring up the dialog box. I get the same thing if I click the
Format button on the toolbar, or select the Format Cells option from the
Format menu. I have no problems formatting cells in other workbooks. It
would appear that the ability to format cells has somehow been disabled in
this one workbook. Can someone tell me what is going on here?

--Tom

 

[Kent]

You may have answered your own question ...

It would appear that the ability to format cells has
somehow been disabled in this one workbook.

Trying loading up Excel in safe mode (Start->Run->Excel /s)
Open this trouble file. Can you format cells now? If you
can, there may be some sort of macro monkey business going
on. It could be an old virus called Laroux in it. Hard to
say without seeing the file. But as an old fed I
understand if you/DOJ is reluctant to shoot it by.

Excel Support Technician
www.canhelpyou.com
-----------------------------------------------------------

 

[Dave Peterson]

The only time I've seen this is when the workbook was created by another program
(Lotus 123 and Crystal Reports, for me).

I could select a little bigger range and get the dialog to appear. Then I'd
format this larger range and come back later to change the sacrificial cells
back to what they should be.

Any chance your workbook was created by something else?

 

[MT DOJ Help Desk]

I'm not 100% certain where the file came from, but I think that it was
emailed to us by another organization, so I really have no way of knowing
what application was used to create the file. However, based on your
description, I would say that it's the same problem that you've seen,
because I'm seeing the exact behavior that you described (I didn't think
about selecting a larger area before because it never occurred to me that it
would make a difference).

This is really weird. If I select only empty cells, then no matter how
large of an area I select, the Format Cells dialog box will not open.
However, if the selection area includes a cell that contains data, or is
empty but has data bleeding over into it from the adjacent cell, then the
Format Cells dialog box will open, even if only a single cell is selected.

Anyway, I selected a large area around the data that I need to format, and
then was able to do what I needed, so problem solved. Thanks for your help.

--Tom

 

[Dave Peterson]

I don't see this much anymore.

It's been resolved (for me) by one or more of these:
1. Not seeing any more Lotus 123 files
2. Not seeing any more Crystal Report files
3. Going from xl97 to xl2k.

(If you're still using xl97, maybe your next upgrade will eliminate the problem
for you. (or just yell at the originators of the workbook!)