OptionButton weird behavior

I am trying to place a pair of OptionButtons on a sheet in a complicated workbook developed by a consultant with LOTS of VBA.

To prove I know what I am doing, I open up a new workbook, place OptionButtons on it, add code to color some cells, etc. Am fine & OK.

But when I place an OptionButton on a sheet in the application workbook I cannot see its properties. The entire "property window" is pure white. Also if I click the control while in design mode, and then go to change background color, the entire color pallet is "grey", no colors whatsoever.

I have hunted through the Tools->Options panel, cannot find any weird setting. The entire application workbook is "read-only" but I have the password and open it in a read/write mode.

I am on Excel 2003 SP2.

Suggestions PLEASE!!

More info, it is an ActiveX control whose "property pane" is all white.

SUCCESS - the properties display pane of an ActiveX control on a sheet requires that the VBA project window be available. Mine was password locked.