Excel cell selected - Ribbon frozen

Just ensure that you are not in EDIT mode on the other sheet.
Press Enter before you switch to the other document.

Hi NELMO,

I have attached screen shot. If you find same issue, then click "Enable Editing" , then edit and save it. If you find other type of issue, please send us screen shot of your excel sheet.

Thanks
Tapan Pattanaik.
enable-editing.JPG

Sorry neither suggestion is of help.

extermie
It is not just EDIT mode when in a cell in Excel, but also in Word when the cursor is just flashing away and I want choose a formating button from the Ribbon.

tapanpattanaik
Your screen shot is what we sometimes get when we open a spreadsheet sent as an attachment.
This is not the case here.
It can be an Excel (or Word) file that has been worked on before with no problems.

The cursor is flashing on the Word doc, or the cell is selected in Excel and the Ribbon just becomes inaccessible. As if it was a 'Not Responding' screen i.e. clicking anywhere on the Ribbon has no effect.

Thanks again for your time

Neil

The problem you describe for Excel or Word (or any other app in that sense) may occur when there are open application windows or processes (foreground or background) or you are in EDIT more in Excel.  For example, if you are in the middle of another process in Word, the ribbon will be inaccessible.  You may have also pressed some button by mistake. for example what happens if you press the alt key - do shortcut letters appear on the ribbon? Could you also try to press ESC when that happens and let us know? (instead of switching to another document)

Also, a collegue had the same problem in Outlook. There may be an issue with the default ribbons.
Try this:
(1) Go to the Outlook folder AppData>Roaming>Microsoft>Outlook
(2) locate outcmd.dat and I rename it
(3) Close all office applications
(4) Windows will recreate the outcmd.dat
Your ribbons will be rebuild and that should work.

Reading around, some people suggest that you can also try to delete the quick access toolbar that may be causing this.  Find the .qat extension file for Excel and Word, delete it (with closed applications) and reopen apps. Quick Acc Toolbar will be rebuild as well.

The application is installed on your computer and is not a virtual one (ie Citrix) correct?
Because for a similar citrix problem there is a solution here
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/appvgeneralsequencing/thread/8835a5b1-6756-4902-9fba-a3ee42900cbe
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MS have now identifed whats wrong and it is a citrix component called "Special Folder Redirection" which hooks an API-call and then passes it to NT instead of App-V. This confuses office, which keeps trying to to re-read the registry and therfore we get this spinning. So effectively Citrix has overridden APP-V’s hook, and Office doesn’t deal gracefully with the result.

We have never had "Special Folder Redirection" enabled in our enviroment, and I even created a citrix-policy which disables it but this did not help.

What we've done now is that we have renamed "sfrhook.dll" (located in %program files%\citrix\system32\) to "sfrhook.dll.old". Then this hook is disabled and our Excel does not hang anymore.
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Thanks extermie

I will try this when the user returns after the weekend

neil

sorry
Been offline for a while

extermie
I can't find any files with the extension .qat.
Also I would rather find a solution that does not take any functionality away like the quick access bar.

Thanks

Neil

Hey no prob...trying to recall what was the issue here....Now are you viewing hidden files (any explorer window, tools --> folder options --> view tab, select the option to show hidden files and folders.  Then look for a .qat file.

You wont take any functionality away..just the qat will be rebuild to the standard/default.
You can also rename the file .qat and not delete it....
"Reading around, some people suggest that you can also try to delete the quick access toolbar that may be causing this.  Find the .qat extension file for Excel and Word, delete it (with closed applications) and reopen apps. Quick Acc Toolbar will be rebuild as well. "

thanks extermie

The problem only seemed to be happening with files in a network share.
I followed your solution and also created a new 'offline' folder for him and now I am not sure which solved the problem, but I have to give you the benefit for all your work.
Thanks again
Neil