Cannot insert command button on spreadsheet

**johnmac** · 09-24-2008, 05:21 AM

Using excel 2003. Cannot insert command button on a spreadsheet we have. Almost all icons in the control toolbox are unavailable when Im on this specific spreadsheet. Any new documents I open work fine. Is there some kind of protected spreadsheet that wouldnt allow for a button, picture, textbox label to be inserted???
I didnt make the original sheet but am just editing and improving it.

I would really appreciate any advice you could give, I have attempted to attach a jpg showing the greyed out icons in my controltool box

Thanks, John

**johnmac** · 09-24-2008, 05:28 AM

And it would appear that my attempt to attach a jpg has failed! no worries =)

**dominicb** · 09-24-2008, 05:28 AM

Good morning johnmac

...and welcome to the forum!!

Originally Posted by johnmac

Cannot insert command button on a spreadsheet we have. Almost all icons in the control toolbox are unavailable when Im on this specific spreadsheet. Any new documents I open work fine. Is there some kind of protected spreadsheet that wouldnt allow for a button, picture, textbox label to be inserted???

Sounds to me like the spreadsheet is protected.
Go to Tools > Protection. The first option will be Protect (or maybe unprotect) worksheet, the third will be protect (or maybe unprotect) workbook. If either of these options is "Unprotect" then select it and hope it doesn't ask for a password ...

HTH

DominicB

**johnmac** · 09-24-2008, 05:34 AM

Hi and thanks for your reply Dominic. Both say protect Im afraid so I dont think that can be it. John

**dominicb** · 09-24-2008, 05:54 AM

Hi johnmac

Is the workbook a shared workbook?
(Does it say [Shared] in the title bar after the workbook name?)

HTH

DominicB

**johnmac** · 09-24-2008, 06:13 AM

no im pretty sue it is not shared. It certainly doesnt say so after the title

**Cheeky Charlie** · 09-24-2008, 06:15 AM

I need a shortcut key for this:
<
Can you post a trimmed example, it's very hard to understand exactly what's going on without seeing your workbook
>

HTH

**johnmac** · 09-24-2008, 06:36 AM

a screen shot?

**dominicb** · 09-24-2008, 06:42 AM

Hi johnmac

Could you not post a cut down version of the file?
You can get rid of all the other tabs except the relevant one, and for this particular problem you can remove all the data in the sheet as well for confidentiality purposes - it would just help to see the original structure of the workbook.

DominicB

**johnmac** · 09-24-2008, 06:44 AM

yeah sure, is there a way i can send it to you personally rather than posting it on forum?

**dominicb** · 09-24-2008, 06:55 AM

Hi johnmac

OK, you can e-mail it to me and I'll take a look at it.
However, when I figure out why, I'll post the reason in this thread, so the solution is available to anyone else with the same problem.

I will PM (private message) you my e-mail address.

DominicB

**johnmac** · 09-24-2008, 07:03 AM

Sent email dominic

**dominicb** · 09-24-2008, 08:21 AM

Hi John

I've taken a look at the file and can't see anything that stands out as to why your workbook is behaving this way. The structure is very simple and straightforward, no macros / links or anything else that could complicate matters. Therefore I created a new workbook and used the Edit > Move or Copy Sheet function to copy the sheets to the new workbook and reset the password. All the controls are now shown in the Control Toolbox. I can only assume that sometime in the file's history there has been some setting that Excel has not properly cleared for some reason, or some corruption of the data comprising the file that has lead to this.

Remember to check that this file now behaves exactly as it should before replacing the original. I would suggest you keep a copy of the original file as a backup.
Reconstructed file attached. I will post this e-mail into your thread.

HTH

DominicB