Microsoft Excel - Hidden active x control buttons.

Asked By Patrick Strover on 25-Apr-13 02:35 AM

I have hidden columns in a spreadsheet that contained active x control buttons. I did this to allow my large sheet to be displayed on a screen. When I unhid my columns, the control buttons were no longer there. How do I recover or re-assign these Active X control buttons. The code is obviously still present but my click - buttons have gone. Thanks for your help.

Harry Boughen replied to Patrick Strover on 26-Apr-13 02:38 AM

Hi Patrick,
I would imagine that you just recreate the buttons and link them to the appropriate piece of code.
Regards
Harry

Patrick Strover replied to Harry Boughen on 26-Apr-13 03:17 AM

Thanks Harry, I was afraid that I may have to do that but was hoping that I could recover them without the schelp recreating the buttons. I won't hide columns containing control buttons in future! Thanks I will wait for more replys before doing what you suggest.
Regards
Patrick

Harry Boughen replied to Patrick Strover on 26-Apr-13 03:29 AM

Hi Patrick,
This seems to be a known problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2503335

This has a fix but won't repair your existing worksheet.

I did read somewhere that the controls actually still exist, just reduced to zero size (if that makes any sense). I wonder whether you can write a macro that detects and resizes the controls.

Regards

Harry

Harry Boughen replied to Patrick Strover on 26-Apr-13 03:35 AM

Hello again Patrick,
This might be of interest

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Office_Productivity/Office_Suites/MS_Office/Excel/A_5315-Dealing-with-unintended-Excel-Active-X-resizing-quirks-VBA-code-simulates-self-correction.html

Could give you some ideas on how to code for trying for the find and resize approach.

Regards

Harry

Patrick Strover replied to Harry Boughen on 26-Apr-13 03:49 AM

Thanks Harry, I will have a look at your link and see if I will be able to follow the code to find and resize. If I think it too arduous I'll recreate them as you suggested.

Regards

Paddy

Patrick Strover replied to Patrick Strover on 27-Apr-13 02:23 AM

Hi Harry, eureka, I have found the hidden active x control buttons! I had set my buttons in 1 row across the spreadsheet and when I selected and Hid the columns to be able to view part of the sheet, the buttons were all piled up on top of one another like a pack of cards in the first unhidden column. So I dragged each button back to its original cell in the row like unpacking the card pile.
The better way to view the section of spreadsheet is to freeze the appropriate column and row then the buttons stay in their position in the sheet. I hope this will help others who have a similar problem
Thanks for your help though Harry
Regards
Patrick

Patrick Strover replied to Harry Boughen on 27-Apr-13 02:28 AM

Sorry I replied to myself in error.

Hi Harry, eureka, I have found the hidden active x control buttons! I had set my buttons in 1 row across the spreadsheet and when I selected and Hid the columns to be able to view part of the sheet, the buttons were all piled up on top of one another like a pack of cards in the first unhidden column. So I dragged each button back to its original cell in the row like unpacking the card pile.
The better way to view the section of spreadsheet is to freeze the appropriate column and row then the buttons stay in their position in the sheet. I hope this will help others who have a similar problem
Thanks for your help though Harry
Regards
Patrick