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Solving Common Setup Problems

This document describes the solution to several common problems involving Excel setup.

Excel crashes when it starts

When Excel is started, it opens an *.xlb file, which contains your menu and toolbar customizations. If this file is damaged, it may cause Excel to crash when it it started. Also, this file may (for some reason) be very large. In such a case, this may also cause Excel to crash. Typically, your *.xlb file should be 500K or smaller.

If Excel crashes when it is started, try deleting your *.xlb file. To do so:

  1. Close Excel
  2. Search your hard drive for *.xlb. The filename and location will vary.
  3. Create a backup copy of this file and then delete the file.
  4. Re-start Excel. Hopefully, Excel will now start up normally.

NOTE:
Deleting your *.xlb file will also delete any toolbar or menu customizations.

Many documents open automatically

If Excel automatically opens lots of files at start-up, here are two things to check:

  1. Your XLStart directory. Files stored in your XLStart directory are opened automatically when Excel starts. Move the files in this folder to a different folder.
  2. Your Alternate startup directory. Select Tools - Options. In the Options dialog box, click the General tab. Locate the setting called At startup, open all files in. If this field is not empty, delete its contents.

Excel's menus are messed up

If your menus change, or if there is a delay before all menu items are not listed, you need to make a change.

  1. Select View - Toolbars - Customize.
  2. In the Customize dialog box, click the Options tab.
  3. Place a checkmark next to the item labeled Always show full menus.

NOTE:
This is, without a doubt, the dumbest option ever created! Why would anyone want their menus to change?

Commands are missing from the menu

If the steps in the preceding section don't solve the problem, you can reset Excel's menu bar:

  1. Select View - Toolbars - Customize.
  2. In the Customize dialog box, click the Toolbars tab.
  3. Scroll down the Toolbars list and select Worksheet Menu Bar.
  4. Click the Reset button

NOTE:
This will return the menu to its default state, and destroy any menu customizations that may have been done.

Excel displays extraneous menu commands

Another common problem is extraneous menu items. For example, you may have used an add-in that added a new menu item to the Tools menu. And, for whatever reason, the add-in did not remove that menu item. To remove the menu item:

  1. Select View - Toolbars - Customize
  2. When the Customize dialog box is displayed, access the extraneous menu item and "drag it away." That will delete it.
  3. Click OK to close the Customize dialog box.

Double-clicking an Excel file does not work

Normally, double-clicking an XLS file starts Excel and opens that file. If this doesn't work for you, you'll need to re-register Excel. Do do so:

  1. Close Excel
  2. Click the Windows Start button
  3. Click Run, to display the Run dialog box
  4. Type the following, and click OK:

    excel / regserver
  5. You'll see a message box that display the progress. When the message box closes, Excel should be back to normal.

You get a macro warning when no macros exist

When you open a workbook, you may be prompted to enable or disable macros --even though no macros exist in the workbook. Press Alt+F11 to activate the Visual Basic Editor. Locate your workbook in the projects window:

  1. If the workbook contains any VBA modules (for example, Module1), delete the module. Even an empty VBA module may trigger the macro warning.
  2. Examine the code modules to ThisWorkbook, and the code module for each Sheet (for example, Sheet1). Make sure that these modules do not contain any macro code. You cannot delete these code module, but they must be empty to avoid the macro warning dialog box.

You get an erroneous "file is being edited by" message

When you open a file that is in use, you'll get a message that tells you the file must be opened in read-only mode. In some cases, you may get this message even though the file is definitely not in use. This can be caused by an Excel crash, in which the file was not released. The only way around it is to re-start Windows.

Numbers are entered with the wrong number of decimal places

For example, entering 154 appears as 1.54 in the cell. Somehow Excel's fixed-decimal mode was turned on. To return to normal:

  1. Select Tools - Options to display the Options dialog box.
  2. Click the Edit tab
  3. Remove the checkmark from the Fixed decimal option.

Of course, this feature can be useful when entering some types of data, but most of the time, you'll want to keep the fixed-decimal mode turned off. 

Numbers, not letters appear in the column header

Normally, Excel columns are labeled with letters. If they actually appear as numbers, you can change it back to the default:

  1. Select Tools - Options to display the Options dialog box.
  2. Click the General tab
  3. Remove the checkmark from the R1C1 reference style option.