New Toolbars disappear

[Brian]

11/28/03

I have three toolbars with with 30+ macro buttons that are available each
time I start up. If I create a new tool bar for a few extra macro buttons.
the toolbar and buttons are visible until I restart Excel. Then the new
toolbar and buttons are missing, and the toolbar isn't listed as an
available toolbar to enable. How do I add a new toolbar and/or macro
buttons? Do I have to delete the Excel10.xlb and start from scratch? That
would be a lot of work.

I'm using Excel 2002 in WinXP

Thanks in Advance

Brian
Beaverton Orygun

 

[Nikos Yannacopoulos]

Brian,

Look at my answer to Jay Gee's posting in this same
newsgroup on Nov.16 7:52PM, titled "Excel 2000 Toolbar
Customization". You may find it helpful.

Nikos

 

[Sandy Mann]

Brian,

Did you re-attach the new toolbar? Even if you modify an existing toolbar
you must delete the existing one and then copy it back again in the "Attach
Toolbars" dialog box.

HTH

Sandy

 

[Brian]

I searched my HDD for any extra Excel.xlb and deleted all, but the one in
Office10\XLStart, then I re-assigned a macro to a blank toolbar button., and
added a new button to a bar, and assigned a macro to it.

When I restarted Excel the changes I made appear briefly then the toolbars
revert to the way they were before any changes were made, and the macro I
assigned to the blank button is no longer assigned.

I'm stumped. If this mean than I can't make changes to the toolbars/buttons,
past a certain point, and need to redo everything whenever I need a new
button, that doesn't make much sense.It there a way to create toolbars and
buttons with VBA, so that all that needs to be in \XLStart is my personal
macro sheet? Whenever I need a new button I would just type it in? Is there
a simpler workaround for this?

Brian
Thanks Again for any help. I need my macro buttons to work efficiently, and
would like to be able to add/remove them when necessary

 

[Dave Peterson]

I'm not sure why your toolbar is disappearing. I think that there have been
posts that say that some users don't have write ability to the drive that saves
the toolbar file. (Kind a security measure for network admins.)

But if you want to build your toolbar on the fly (and I would/do), I think
you'll want to look at John Walkenbach's MenuMaker program.

This doesn't actually build a toolbar, but it adds an option to the worksheet
menubar. (I find this organization easier to use when there are lots of
macros.)

http://j-walk.com/ss/excel/tips/tip53.htm

===
You may want to try renaming that last *.xlb file to *.xlbOLD and then create a
new toolbar (just one icon to save time) to see if that sticks.

Maybe there was something wrong with your *.xlb file. They seem to get bloated
and corrupted a lot more than you would expect.

(But even if that worked, I'd still look at John's workbook. It looks really
neat and professional.)

 

[Gord Dibben]

Office 2002 Excel10.xlb changes are saved by default in the folder....

C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel

Having Excel10.xlb in your XLSTART folder and loading from there will bring up
only the changes made up to the point when you placed it in the XLSTART
folder.

Any subsequent changes will be stored in the Excel10.xlb file in the above
docs and settings folder. It will open with Excel, but the Excel10.xlb from
your XLSTART folder will override.

Move your Excel10.xlb file from the XLSTART folder to the docs and settings
folder as above.

Now open Excel and make changes. Close and re-open. Have your changes stuck?

I think so.

Gord Dibben XL2002

 

[Dave Peterson]

I think that location actually varies with versions of windows, too.

I use win98 and xl2002 and mine is stored in:
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel

And I think the OP could verify all this by finding them all and renaming them
(*.xlbOLD) and then creating a test version--then use windows|Find to find the
real location.

 

[Brian]

I read a posting through google that stated that an Excel.xlb files over 49K
is bloated/corrupted. Mine is 67.7K. It's time for me to remake it....it's
just a little bit to large.....

Jwalk's menu(s) look like a good alternative if creating a new xlb doesn't
work, though I am used to having macro buttons.
I tried moving the .xlb to Docs & Settings/XLStart that didn't make any
difference. Is there a difference in using Docs and Settings\ XlStart
instead of Office10\XLStart?

Thanks for all the suggestions

Brian

 

[Dave Peterson]

I'd still let excel decide where to put it.

I'd close excel, then rename all existing ones to *.xlbOLD and then create a new
toolbar.

See where xl stored it and use that location.

 

[Gord Dibben]

Excel will not save changes to an *.XLB if opened from any XLSTART folder.

As Dave suggests..let Excel decide where to put it.

BTW My *.XLB file is 362K and..knock wood..have never had a problem in 97 or
2002

Gord

 

[Dave Peterson]

Gord,

I think you're cruisin' for a bruisin'.

When I wasn't aware of the bloat in *.xlb files, my .xlb had ballooned to about
470k (IIRC).

I didn't notice any trouble, but seeing posts about xlb files being under 15k
made me trash the old and rebuild.

I actually dumped some icons that I didn't use and added a few more. It went
down to about 11 or 12k. I now keep a copy of that in a safe place so that I
can just copy|paste right over the "real" one when it starts growing.

You may want to do the same--even if you're not seeing problems, it should make
xl load more quickly.

Kind of the same reason that I clean up the windows Temp folder every so
often--whether it actually needs it or not.

(Same philosopy for showering on Saturday--whether I need it or not! <vbg>)

 

[Gord Dibben]

Yah, I know. I've had it up over 500k but trimmed it a while ago.

One of these days I'll load up J.W.'s menumakr.xls and spend an hour or three
re-doing everything and appending it to my macros add-in.

Gord

 

[Brian]

I removed Excel.xlb from the Docs&Settings\XLStart, put it in in c:\XLB, My
'old' custom toolbars appeared. and changes to buttons, and new toolbars are
saved. But where? in what file? I searched all drives the only xlb file is
in c:\XLB.Are the changes really saved in Normal.dot like a reply to another
toolbar question suggested? I thought Normal.dot was for Word only.

Brian
Thanks for all the help

Yah, I know. I've had it up over 500k but trimmed it a while ago.

One of these days I'll load up J.W.'s menumakr.xls and spend an hour or three
re-doing everything and appending it to my macros add-in.

Gord

Gord,

I think you're cruisin' for a bruisin'.

When I wasn't aware of the bloat in *.xlb files, my .xlb had ballooned to about
470k (IIRC).

I didn't notice any trouble, but seeing posts about xlb files being under 15k
made me trash the old and rebuild.

I actually dumped some icons that I didn't use and added a few more. It went
down to about 11 or 12k. I now keep a copy of that in a safe place so that I
can just copy|paste right over the "real" one when it starts growing.

You may want to do the same--even if you're not seeing problems, it should make
xl load more quickly.

Kind of the same reason that I clean up the windows Temp folder every so
often--whether it actually needs it or not.

(Same philosopy for showering on Saturday--whether I need it or not!

Excel will not save changes to an *.XLB if opened from any XLSTART folder.

As Dave suggests..let Excel decide where to put it.

BTW My *.XLB file is 362K and..knock wood..have never had a problem in 97 or
2002

Gord

 

[Gord Dibben]

Brian

They might be saved in C:\*.xlb but I don't know how.

When you make changes does this file get altered?

Normal.dot is for Word and has nothing to do with Excel.

Why are you so reluctant to place your Excel10.xlb in its proper folder as has
been suggested a few times?

C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel

Gord Dibben XL2002

I removed Excel.xlb from the Docs&Settings\XLStart, put it in in c:\XLB, My
'old' custom toolbars appeared. and changes to buttons, and new toolbars are
saved. But where? in what file? I searched all drives the only xlb file is
in c:\XLB.Are the changes really saved in Normal.dot like a reply to another
toolbar question suggested? I thought Normal.dot was for Word only.

Brian
Thanks for all the help

Yah, I know. I've had it up over 500k but trimmed it a while ago.

One of these days I'll load up J.W.'s menumakr.xls and spend an hour or three
re-doing everything and appending it to my macros add-in.

Gord

 

[Brian]

Gord,

I placed Excel10.xlb in c:\XLB first to see what would happen. Excel created
a copy of Excel10.xlb and put it in C:\Documents and
Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel, and it is slightly larger
than the Excel10.xlb I moved to C:\XLB, showing that the changes I made were
saved.

This has been an interesting experiment. My problem is solved. I didn't
reboot after moving Excel10.xlb. If I had, it would have been necessary to
create a new Excel.xlb.


Thank you,


Brian

Brian

They might be saved in C:\*.xlb but I don't know how.

When you make changes does this file get altered?

Normal.dot is for Word and has nothing to do with Excel.

Why are you so reluctant to place your Excel10.xlb in its proper folder as has
been suggested a few times?

C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel

Gord Dibben XL2002

I removed Excel.xlb from the Docs&Settings\XLStart, put it in in c:\XLB, My
'old' custom toolbars appeared. and changes to buttons, and new toolbars are
saved. But where? in what file? I searched all drives the only xlb file is
in c:\XLB.Are the changes really saved in Normal.dot like a reply to another
toolbar question suggested? I thought Normal.dot was for Word only.

Brian
Thanks for all the help

Yah, I know. I've had it up over 500k but trimmed it a while ago.

One of these days I'll load up J.W.'s menumakr.xls and spend an hour or three
re-doing everything and appending it to my macros add-in.

Gord

 

[Gord Dibben]

Brian

Glad to hear it. Thanks for the feedback.

Gord

Gord,

I placed Excel10.xlb in c:\XLB first to see what would happen. Excel created
a copy of Excel10.xlb and put it in C:\Documents and
Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel, and it is slightly larger
than the Excel10.xlb I moved to C:\XLB, showing that the changes I made were
saved.

This has been an interesting experiment. My problem is solved. I didn't
reboot after moving Excel10.xlb. If I had, it would have been necessary to
create a new Excel.xlb.


Thank you,


Brian

Brian

They might be saved in C:\*.xlb but I don't know how.

When you make changes does this file get altered?

Normal.dot is for Word and has nothing to do with Excel.

Why are you so reluctant to place your Excel10.xlb in its proper folder as has
been suggested a few times?

C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel

Gord Dibben XL2002