Help - Loosing my settings and my mind.

[OhMizerWord]

I keep loosing my settings in Excel. Periodically, my toolbars reset back to
defaults and my custom toolbars are gone. Also, my custom colors I set in
Tools|Options often resort back to defaults.

What could be causing this and what can I do to prevent it?

What's the easiest and cleanest way to back up these settings and then
reapply them when needed?

What file keeps the color settings?

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

I have had this happen to me. In my case it was caused by opening up files
with the defferent settings for all of the options. I got around it by
setting one master file with all of the settings I prefered, and being
completely out of EXCEL and opening that file to reinitiate all of my
preffered setting

 

[Dave Peterson]

I don't have a good guess why your toolbars are being reset, but I know that I
fiddle around enough with mine that I always keep a backup copy of the file that
holds those customized changes.

The file is named *.xlb (name and location vary with versions of windows and
excel).

Mine (xl2003/winXP) is in:
C:\Documents and Settings\David Peterson\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel
(it's named EXCEL11.xlb)

When I make changes that I know I want to keep, I close excel and backup that
*.xlb to a nice safe spot.

When I screw it up (or if it disappears for you), just close excel and copy my
backup to the correct location.

Until you find the reason why you're losing your customizations, you may want to
try the same thing--even after you find the reason, too!

===
Custom colors are kept with the workbook. So you can have lots of different
custom colors.

One way to make new workbooks have your custom colors is to create a workbook
template (named book.xlt) and store it in your XLStart folder. (Use windows
start button|search to find that location.)

Each time you click that New Icon, your new workbook will inherit all the
settings (including custom colors) from that book.xlt template workbook.

You may want to add more stuff--headers/footers/page layout???

 

[OhMizerWord]

Thanks, Dave.

I don't have a good guess why your toolbars are being reset, but I know
that I
fiddle around enough with mine that I always keep a backup copy of the
file that
holds those customized changes.

The file is named *.xlb (name and location vary with versions of windows
and
excel).

Mine (xl2003/winXP) is in:
C:\Documents and Settings\David Peterson\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel
(it's named EXCEL11.xlb)

When I make changes that I know I want to keep, I close excel and backup
that
*.xlb to a nice safe spot.

When I screw it up (or if it disappears for you), just close excel and
copy my
backup to the correct location.

Until you find the reason why you're losing your customizations, you may
want to
try the same thing--even after you find the reason, too!

===
Custom colors are kept with the workbook. So you can have lots of
different
custom colors.

One way to make new workbooks have your custom colors is to create a
workbook
template (named book.xlt) and store it in your XLStart folder. (Use
windows
start button|search to find that location.)

Each time you click that New Icon, your new workbook will inherit all the
settings (including custom colors) from that book.xlt template workbook.

You may want to add more stuff--headers/footers/page layout???

 

[OhMizerWord]

Thanks, BJ.

I have had this happen to me. In my case it was caused by opening up files
with the defferent settings for all of the options. I got around it by
setting one master file with all of the settings I prefered, and being
completely out of EXCEL and opening that file to reinitiate all of my
preffered setting