I have mentioned 2 visual issues with Excel 2007 recently, and I think they may be both resolved so I thought I would summarise here.
Here I mentioned about a full screen lock-up. We have applied many of the hotfixes released since SP1, which will be rolled up into SP2 due out any minute. This issue (caused by a leakage of GDI objects – possibly caused by graphs or drawing objects) seems now resolved and we have no recent reports of this screen freeze.
Secondarily I discussed disappearing workbooks on open here. I have only seen reports of this on multi screen setups. If you maximise the Excel window it will only maximise to a single screen, but you can de-maximise and resize across both screens – you can then have 2 workbooks open with nearly a full screen view – one on each screen. If you save and close the wb on the secondary window it will remember its placement within the Excel desktop.
If you then maximise Excel on the primary screen (or at lest drag it off the second screen) and reopen that file, it opens ok, but ‘displays’ on the secondary monitor. Which is not visible – so you cant see it. Resize the Excel application window back across both screens and there it is, over on the side.
Bug or operator error? you decide, but maybe Excel could check the proposed window is at least partially within the current XLDESK window?
Finally I heard about another issue last week that seemed to be related to freezing panes in certain (not particularly massive) spreadsheets in 2007. Seemingly scrolling and screenupdating don’t quite work right, I havent seen that myself – have you?
please let us know if you have seen these issues, and if these fixes work
cheers
Simon
Smurf on Spreadsheets 
Wednesday, 15th April, 2009 at 8:46 am |
Thank you for informing us Simon.
Thursday, 16th April, 2009 at 11:24 am |
Never seen them Simon – sory :-( …
Dick
Sunday, 3rd May, 2009 at 2:33 pm |
I have issues with 2007 Excel. It only starts after I have had a spreadsheet open for a while; but the cells do not refresh properly and I get screen flicker when it begins. Sometimes I have to scroll down past the problem area and scroll back to get back my visuual of a group of cells. I recently started using multiple screens/monitors and thought it was related to this. But now I am seeing it even with the extra monitor not in use.
Wednesday, 1st July, 2009 at 12:14 pm |
Patrick – I know exactly what you mean about ‘vanishing data’.
This is the sole reason I have not accepted 2007 into my business unit.
There should be some KB articles about this – it’s a known Excel problem, not fixed with SP2. Should be fixed in Office 14.
We are also currently testing a private hotfix from MS to resolve this.
Thye key factor is not the graphics pack but whether or not you have freeze panes enabled. Unfreeze and no issues, but who can live without freeze panes.
Simon – get this nearly all the time (as per our e-mails) on my twin monitor set up – no one else has this issue with single monitors.
GDI count is low so not leaking.
Will also happen when maximised to one monitor only. Almost entirely dependent on pc locking, either manual or timed, I don’t use screensavers as that only makes things worse.
Am getting so hacked off now that going back to 2003 seems like my only way to sanity.
Wednesday, 11th November, 2009 at 10:53 pm |
I have been experiencing this problem of vanishing data with 2007. I have only a single monitor, so I know that’s not the problem. I do have frames frozen. The problem only seems to occurre when I use the scroll wheel on my wireless Logitech mouse.
Also I have been having problems with the sort function. When I sort a group of cells; they don’t all remain sorted after a save. I’ve had to go in, delete cells and re-write equations in the cells.
Hope this is help-full..
Thursday, 12th November, 2009 at 11:05 am |
Hi Spirit,
Our private hotfix has een fully tested and released in
August 2009 Excel CU hotfix (973932): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973932/
Using the scroll wheel will exacerbate the problem due, I think, to the accelerated rate of scrolling. But we and Microsoft pin this issue squarely on the use of freeze panes.
Single and dual monitors behave the same.
The fix is fine but it is version specific. If you have a version of Excel 2007 that is pre 12.0.6514.5000 the fix will not stick.
We’ve had to redo a number of units as the 2007 rollout installed an earlier version.
A much longer dialogue can be found at:
http://excelusergroup.org/forums/p/1218/4833.aspx#4833
Can’t really comment on the sort-save issue without seeing the workbook but I’d double check that all calculations have been completed and that the sorted data isn’t dependedent on something that isn’t being sorted.
I’ve seen it happen where a workbook is on manual calc, sorted but depending on unsorted data, not recalculated but recalcs on save so when re-opened it looks like its all changed.
HTH a little.
Wednesday, 11th November, 2009 at 11:06 pm |
Hi Spirit
The freeze frames causing update problem is a known issue. As far as I know MS have released a hotfix for it. At least I’m sure they were going to a few weeks back.
Not seen the sort issue (yet) thanks for the heads up
Tuesday, 17th November, 2009 at 11:37 pm |
Microsoft has just put out some security updates, KB973593 for Excel 2007 and KB973475 that are having a devastating affect on our Excel based application. It appears that application.screenupdating = false and application.screenupdating = true do not work if a userform is open. Furthermore, if a user updates a cell, the current sheet starts displaying portions of other sheets that have equations linked to that cell. Uninstalling these updates totally fixed the problem.
Wednesday, 18th November, 2009 at 12:07 am |
Thanks Lance
Thats really useful info
I have posted about this issue here
Your experience suggests its a bit more widespread than the worksheet protection issues we have heard about so far – thanks for sharing
Tuesday, 9th February, 2010 at 6:49 pm |
The screen updating issues mentioned by Lance are a very serious issue for workbooks with multiple sheets using VBA. When VBA changes values of cells or checkboxes on another sheet, those entries “poke through” and appear on the active worksheet, even if Application.Screenupdating=false. What’s more, I find these problems now occur in Excel 2003 also, even though they never used to do so! A security update seems like a likely prospect, I haven’t tested this yet. Combine these issues with the extremely slow performance in 2007 (10-20X worse than Excel 2003), the downgraded user interface in Excel 2007, and a lack of backward compatibility in many Visual Basic features in 2007, and I am compelled to use Excel 2003 exclusively.
Wednesday, 10th February, 2010 at 6:12 pm |
OK, hotfix is available for both 2003 and 2007 versions to fix this issue–see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978522/en-us for the 2007 version and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978908/en-us for the 2003 version. I found the hotfixes to work.
Monday, 3rd May, 2010 at 2:08 pm |
Hello ! I have the following issue with Excel 2007: Last week we updated Office 2003 with Office 2007. There are now some Excel documents which do not open properly. What is my issue exactly: On the below pane there is no “Insert Worksheet” Option. Unfortunately I can’t open the new worksheets in these documents, neither can I insert a new one. Could you, please, ofer me a solution. Thank you very much.
Friday, 17th December, 2010 at 3:31 pm |
Thanks a lot Spirit !!!
I have fixed this strange issues removing our logitech wireless mouse.
Now it works like a charm
Tuesday, 7th August, 2012 at 11:05 am |
I’m not sure if this is related to your problems or maybe some of you have a solution. On office 2007 on a extended screen setup we have the issue that the format window (once you right click and click format) opens in the middle of the two screens and makes it difficult to use. Once you move it to one screen and finish with the change and need to open it again it does the same.
It would be nice to have some help with this.
Wednesday, 8th August, 2012 at 9:44 am |
I’m assuming you mean extended desktop across 2 monitors.
There’s not a lot you can do with this – it’s just doing what it does.
Where the box appears depends on so many things:
Comparative screen size (monitors the same size?)
How far is it extended – 2 screens, 1¾ screens, 1¼ etc
Zoom levels
Location of cell being formatted – edge, centre of screen and so on.
If I pick random cells on sheet extended across 2 monitors it jumps around like a cricket – trying to be near to the chosen cell but dealing with built in locating rules.
Best solution if you’re always hitting the divide (frequently formatting the same area) would be to reduce your extension a little, say 1½ screens or similar so it just nudges onto one of the screens.
HTH
Monday, 13th August, 2012 at 7:03 am |
That is the confusing bit, the excel sheet is not extended, it is open on only 1 screen and not over both. So in theory the format widow should open in either the opposite screen on the current screen but opens over the divide.