Glitches with Excel in Leopard

[Phillip Jones]

Sound with Word or Excel has always been iffy in Office2004 and I assume
by the comments in 2008.

I actually prefer the sounds feedback.

But there is no rhyme or reason for them not working. They may work the
first time or two a File is opened. And then quit, then suddenly they
will start gain to work.

In fact the last version the sounds actually worked and stayed working
for me was Word 6.0.1.a and Excel 5.0.1.a and that was back in System *
days. when I wen to 9 I had to buy 2001. and I had to get 0office 2004
for OSX.

for those not Familiar with Word 6 Excel 5 Its direct equivalent and
look like carbon copies of each other was Word 95PC and Excel 95PC.
Sounds have mind of their own work when they feel like it.

This works fine for me, you might want to verify and then repair your
permissions using the Disk Utility?

Fergal Condron,
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft Corp.
This posting is provided ³AS IS² with no warranties, and confers norights.

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Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
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[NESSA GRAINGER]

Hi Michael,





Leopard requires new printer drivers from some manufacturers. HP driver
updates are delivered by Apple's software update, but other brands require
a trip to the web site of the printer manufacturer to get the latest updates.





Try updating the printer driver and see if that solves the problem.





-Jim






Quoting from "Michael T" , in article (e-mail address removed),

On Nov 19, 11:03 pm, (e-mail address removed) wrote: >> After a

few minutes of working on a spreadsheet, I can't get keyboard >> commands
to work. I have to go to the menu and "save" and then exit >> the program,
then start it up again to get keyboard commands back. >> Over and over
and over. > > I'm having some weird issues with Excel 2004 as well on
my iMac 24" > alum body with OS 10.5.1 and v11.3.7 of Excel. When I print
a > spreadsheet, nothing prints, I get a blank sheet. If I look at the

sheet with print preview, the entire preview window is white with the
exception of a blue rectangular area in the upper left corner. This
happens on multiple files that have been created since upgrading to
Leopard, but not on older spreadsheets. Also, the same file does not
have this issue on my MacBook (black) with the same OS and version of
Excel. > > Any thoughts here?

-- Jim Gordon Mac MVP





MVPs are not Microsoft Employees MVP info <http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/>

 

[Matt]

I am not sure whether this is a glitch or a UI change. In Excel, double clicking a cell to change the contents will make it jump to a seemingly random row in that same column. At times it will jump to the nearest empty cell, other times it will jump to a populated cell that is different in some respect, color, shading, or something else.

Please don't say UI enhancement. UI 'enhancements' drove me back to Word2004.

- anon - too lazy to create an account.

 

[Pat McMillan]

Well, this isn't a UI enhancement. In fact, what you're seeing is that when
you double-click on a cell *border*, Excel moves the selection to the top
cell in that column. This is actually how Excel 2004 works too. I'm honestly
not sure why it was ever developed that way, but there may have been a
legitimate reason at some point. The problem in Excel 2008 is that, for some
reason, we increased the thickness of our cell borders by a pixel or two,
which seems just enough to make it more likely that you will double click on
a border when you're intending to double-click on a cell!

We're actually hoping to fix this in a future update, but until we do, the
best advice is to take as much care as possible to avoid cell borders when
double-clicking on cells. Another, though less than perfect, workaround, is
to select the desired cell with a single click, then press Control + U to go
into edit mode.

Thanks,

Pat

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Patrick -

Some interjections below;

Well, this isn't a UI enhancement. In fact, what you're seeing is that when
you double-click on a cell *border*, Excel moves the selection to the top
cell in that column. This is actually how Excel 2004 works too.

More completely:

Dbl-clicking the top/bottom cell wall is a shortcut for getting to the
top/bottom of a consecutively filled column of cells. Dbl-clicking the
left/right cell wall takes the selector to the respective end of
consecutively filled cells in the row.

I'm honestly
not sure why it was ever developed that way, but there may have been a
legitimate reason at some point.

He "legitimate reason" is that it's a very useful *feature* Far more
expeditious than having to use the keyboard shortcuts when reviewing,
quicker & more accurate than scrolling, and significantly more convenient
than most other navigation techniques for getting to the start/end of a
row/column.

The problem in Excel 2008 is that, for some
reason, we increased the thickness of our cell borders by a pixel or two,

Probably because the advent of higher res displays made the "old" cell walls
virtually invisible Personally, I'd rather see you folks grab the cell
wall color option from your Win counterparts.

which seems just enough to make it more likely that you will double click on
a border when you're intending to double-click on a cell!

Yeah - kinda like having to be cognizant of pointer appearance when dragging
to select cells so as to avoid Drag 'n' Drop or AutoFill.

We're actually hoping to fix this in a future update,

I - for one - would hate to see that happen. Removing useful features to
accommodate inattentiveness seems rather counterproductive In more than
4 years in these groups this is the first mention I've ever seen on the
matter. In fact, now that Matt is aware of what's going on perhaps he'll
find it as useful as I do. Apparently it isn't a widespread issue - possibly
related to...

but until we do, the
best advice is to take as much care as possible to avoid cell borders when
double-clicking on cells.
Exactly!

Another, though less than perfect, workaround, is
to select the desired cell with a single click, then press Control + U to go
into edit mode.

"Less than perfect", perhaps, but pretty close. "Perfect" - IMHO - is
editing in the Formula Bar rather than in the body of the data in the first
place In fact, I keep the Pref for double-clicking to edit in cells
cleared so I *don't* get into edit mode accidentally.

Thanks,

Pat

Just another perspective

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Pat McMillan]

Thanks Bob! Your long experience with Excel is, as always, invaluable! Your
thoughts on this issue are really valuable, and we'll take them into
consideration before making any further changes to cell double-clicking
behavior.

FWIW, I've heard (both on this newsgroup and elsewhere) from probably a
dozen customers about this "problem" as they see it. That's not at all to
say that it demands to be changed. At least now I have a better
understanding of the problem and we can educate people better about how this
feature works.

Thanks again,

Pat

 

[Matt]

Hello! Thanks for the quick responses.

Well, this isn't a UI enhancement. In fact, what you're seeing is that
when you double-click on a cell *border*, Excel moves the selection to
the top cell in that column. This is actually how Excel 2004 works too.
I'm honestly not sure why it was ever developed that way, but there may
have been a legitimate reason at some point.




Ah, I had a suspicion that it was intentional, however I had never inadvertently activated it in Excel2004..

The problem in Excel 2008 is that, for some reason, we increased the thickness
of our cell borders by a pixel or two, which seems just enough to make
it more likely that you will double click on a border when you're intending
to double-click on a cell!




That would explain it, Thanks! That has turned a 1% occurrence into 80% for me and others that use Excel2008 in my office.

I challenge Mr. Jones' opinion - it is not a matter of inattentiveness as it is a combination of pointing device, resolution and cell size. I propose that the selection area for the borders would become a tweakable item rather than a permanent change, since not all Excel users have the same use case as Mr. Jones. The border-click feature appears to overlap entirely with the Apple-(cursor movement) keys. I would accept the formula bar option, however it seems that it's appearance on the display is XORed with the display of the Formatting Palette, despite how many places the "Show Formula Bar" preference is checked. I am assuming that I have missed a hidden checkbox somewhere though..

Thanks again!

 

[CyberTaz]

No Offense intended, Matt - I wasn't referring to you or anyone in
particular. Just a general observation about inattention of many to the
availability of features software has to offer, not intended to suggest
carelessness on anyone's part. In fact, I concur fully about the fact that
the feature is more sensitive in 2008 for the same reasons you cite.

The abominably disrespectful way the Formula Bar has been treated in this
version is a source of aggravation for just about everyone I know. I'm
afraid you've missed no checkbox. Your best bet [IMHO] is to dock it
directly beneath the Menu Bar rather than leave it floating - at least it
has been fixed to the point that it doesn't any longer automatically splay
out the way it originally did in the initial release

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Matt]

Hello Bob,

No Offense intended, Matt - I wasn't referring to you or anyone in particular.
Just a general observation about inattention of many to the availability
of features software has to offer, not intended to suggest carelessness
on anyone's part. In fact, I concur fully about the fact that the feature
is more sensitive in 2008 for the same reasons you cite.




No offense taken. I didn't mean to come across that way. I agree that there are a great number of features, both in this version and those previous, that are stumbled upon by users such as myself that don't take time to read feature lists. I am sure that it would be far more economical in terms of effort and process if I stopped using it like Lotus 1-2-3.

The abominably disrespectful way the Formula Bar has been > treated

in this version is a source of aggravation for just > about everyone I
know. I'm afraid you've missed no checkbox. > Your best bet [IMHO] is
to dock it directly beneath the Menu Bar > rather than leave it floating
- at least it has been fixed to the > point that it doesn't any longer
automatically splay out the > way it originally did in the initial release




Ah! Knowing that I did not simply miss an options pane somewhere is a relief. Thanks for the tip!

- Matt

 

[Ben]

Does anyone have problems with Spaces and Excel? No matter what space you put your excel document in, the toolbox seems "stuck" in space one. Sometimes the toolbox appears in the correct space but is completely blank, so you have to hide and show it again to have it display correctly. The formula bar also shows significant graphical glitches when working with Spaces. I'm a student and the lack of good Spaces support is very disappointing. I use spaces a lot to make up for the small screen on my macbook and avoid distractions from Safari and iChat.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Does anyone have problems with Spaces and Excel? No matter what space you put
your excel document in, the toolbox seems "stuck" in space one. Sometimes the
toolbox appears in the correct space but is completely blank, so you have to
hide and show it again to have it display correctly. The formula bar also
shows significant graphical glitches when working with Spaces. I'm a student
and the lack of good Spaces support is very disappointing. I use spaces a lot
to make up for the small screen on my macbook and avoid distractions from
Safari and iChat.

Spaces and Office 2008, do not yet play nicely together. You may have better
luck if you hide the formatting palette. Better yet, don't use spaces until
this gets fixed.

 

[Deanna]

I was recently "upgraded" to Leopard and am also experiencing the random failure of Excel to accept keyboard entries. When I use the search keystroke, the problem will occur more consistently.

Has Microsoft issued a fix yet? Their Office 2008 product is awful, so upgrading is not an option-I'd rather have all my teeth pulled out by pliers with no pain killers than switch to Office 2008.

 

[Heather Geisler]

Has anything been figured out with the keyboard freezing up in Excel 2004 on Leopard MacBooks? Have the most recent version of Excel and 10.5.4 on Leopard. Same issues that people have mentioned months before. HAve deleted preferences, tried new user accounts, uninstalled/reinstalled, even unchecked error checking as one placed mentioned. It is still happening for us...HELP

 

[Pat McMillan]

We've investigated this and believe it is a Leopard Rosetta bug (so it
should only be happening if you're on an Intel Mac). We've posted a bug with
Apple. You might want to contact Apple about it.

Thanks,

Pat McMillan

 

[Pat McMillan]

We've investigated this and believe it is a Leopard Rosetta bug (so it
should only be happening if you're on an Intel Mac). We've posted a bug with
Apple. You might want to contact Apple about it.

Thanks,

Pat McMillan

 

[Gabrielle]

We have iMacs (2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB 800 Mhz) and are attempting to use Office 2008. We had only a few minor problems with Word and initially no problems with Excel. Now half our Excel documents won't open -- they look like they are opening, but they don't. We've run repairs and everything is reported to be okay. This is happening on two different machines.

 

[Pat McMillan]

It's very likely that the workbooks you're trying to open have sheets that
contain characters such as "/" (forward slash) that are now invalid in
current versions. The 12.1 update introduced a problem that causes such
files to fail to load. We will be releasing an update with a fix for that
problem very soon. In the meantime, if you have access to any earlier
version of Excel or a Windows version of Excel, you will be able to open the
files there and change the sheet names so they'll be able to open again in
12.1.1.

Thanks,

Pat

 

[Alex Carter]

On Nov 19, 8:03 pm, (e-mail address removed) wrote: > After a few
minutes of working on a spreadsheet, I can't get keyboard > commands to
work. I have to go to the menu and "save" and then exit > the program,
then start it up again to get keyboard commands back. > Over and over
and over.





I am also having the same problem. Have you resolved the issue?

 

[Pat McMillan]

Are you using Excel 2004 on an Intel machine on Leopard? If so, we believe
this is an Apple OS bug and have reported it to Apple.

Thanks,

Pat

 

[JoyG]

I'm glad to see this answer so I know its not an issue with my new MBP. Pat, do you know if similar issues have been reported with the 2004 versions of Word and Entourage? I've held off upgrading because I need the functionality in Excel 2004, but now I'm having issues with Word 04 and even Entourage on my new intel Mac.

Thanks!

Are you using Excel 2004 on an Intel machine on Leopard? If so, we believe
this is an Apple OS bug and have reported it to Apple.





Thanks,





Pat