Excel 2002 "Grey Area Display Error"

[Colin_L]

Hello everyone.

I am running Excel 2002 SP3 on Windows XP.

On seemingly random and infrequent occasions, when I run Excel VBA
procedures, once Application.Screenupdating is set to True at the end of the
procedure, I experience a 'display error' within the Excel Application where
a 'grey area' about 3 inches wide appears. This grey area covers only the
worksheet - it does not impose upon the toolbars etc...

I have experienced this error at 2 different workplaces, with different
procedures / workbooks and with both Excel 2002 and Excel 2003.

The only discernable similarity between the procedures I have experienced
this with are that they all involve updating values within a worksheet with
screenupdating / displayalerts / calculations all set to False / Manual etc
to improve efficiency during the procedure.

The only way the grey area can be removed is by closing and restarting
Excel. If I right-click on the grey area nothing happens. From memory I
believe a can still manipulate the worksheet underneath the grey area but
obviously I cannot see what I am doing.

After some considerable brainstorming, the most likely conclusion that I
have come to is that this 'grey area' is somehow related to the "Document
Recovery Task Pane". The grey area and this task pane have identical
dimensions (can I attach pictures to this thread for you to see??) and, as
far as I am aware, this is the only task pane which docks on the left of the
Excel App. I have asked around within the Excel community and a few others
have informed me that they have also experienced this problem: so I am not
alone.

I could speculate on all sorts of ideas on how/why this might be happening
but the truth is I simply don't know - and I don't know how to prove any
ideas either.

Has anyone else experienced this problem or know of an established reason or
fix?

If required then I can provide a link to another forum where I have attached
the pictures and discussed with others.

Thanks,
Colin

 

[Nathan Strom]

Has anyone else experienced this problem or know of an established reason or
fix?

I know it's a while since the original post here, but I'm chiming in
since I've run into this problem before and it was a serious pain to
reproduce, identify, and fix.

The issue has something to do with docked toolbars at the left of the
Excel window generally -- when it occurs one workaround that removes
the gray bar (short of closing and reopening excel) is to take any
Excel toolbar from the top of the window, dock it to the left, then
dock it to the top again. I'm suspecting it's a bug in Excel that
Microsoft has identified a fix for but haven't fully regression tested
and included in a service pack.

The good news is, there's as easy fix on the user end:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/905208/

1. Quit Excel 2002.
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\11.0\Options
4. After you select the subkey that is specified in step 3, point to
New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
5. Type DisableToolbarRedrawToggle, and then press ENTER.
6. Right-click DisableToolbarRedrawToggle, and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
8. On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Nathan Strom
Willow Solutions, Inc.
http://www.willowsolutions.com

 

[Colin_L]

Nathan,

Many thanks for your reply!

Colin