Lost my formatting palette in Excel AND word

E

elizabethk

New member
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hi, I have a habit of having alot of windows open on my Mac G4 computer and I tend to move them over to the side.....Unfortunately, a while ago, I moved my formatting palette in Excel (...and word)....over too far to the side of the screen where it is no longer retrievable. I of course can turn off VIEW PALETTE....but when I do, I see it fly in from off the side of the screen and close.....and when I turn on VIEW PALETTE, it flies right by me to the extreme non-visible side of the screen.

I'm not a programmer so I'm looking for an easy option to get my formatting palettes back. I don't think I still have the original software - running Mac OX 10.4.11 ... and my microsoft office package is older...it's microsoft excel x but doesn't give a year...

Can someone help me out? I've got some spreadsheets to do and not having the palette is a nightmare!

Excel should really should prevent this from happening too :) T H A N K S :pizza:
 
elizabethk said:
Hi, I have a habit of having alot of windows open on my Mac G4 computer and I tend to move them over to the side.....Unfortunately, a while ago, I moved my formatting palette in Excel (...and word)....over too far to the side of the screen where it is no longer retrievable. I of course can turn off VIEW PALETTE....but when I do, I see it fly in from off the side of the screen and close.....and when I turn on VIEW PALETTE, it flies right by me to the extreme non-visible side of the screen.

I'm not a programmer so I'm looking for an easy option to get my formatting palettes back. I don't think I still have the original software - running Mac OX 10.4.11 ... and my microsoft office package is older...it's microsoft excel x but doesn't give a year...

Can someone help me out? I've got some spreadsheets to do and not having the palette is a nightmare!

Excel should really should prevent this from happening too :) T H A N K S :pizza:
Click to expand...

Hi Elizabeth,

I had this issue before upgrading to OS X.6 as before that Office windows and OSX simply didn't play well together.

When things go awry like this in Excel, as they seem to about once every 3 months or so, I usually start with deleting my Excel preferences. I recommend trying that step first (but take note of any special preferences you've setup before doing so).

With Excel shut down, go to Macintosh HD -> Users -> Your User Name -> Library -> Preferences and find com.microsoft.Excel.plist.

Move that file to your desktop or Trash it and restart Excel. It should start fresh with no memory of where your palette is. Drop me a line here or at dave.macdonald@gmail.com if this doesn't work for you and we can move onto some other options.

BTW, if you are averse to deleting your preferences, you may be able to hook up to a second monitor and find your palette on the additional screen.

Dave
 
Formatting Palette Still Off-Screen and Unreachable

Hi Dave and Ken,

Thanks for replying.

Well Dave, I DID do what you said, I closed Excel and found the preference file and moved it to the trash. When I opened up Excel again, the VIEW PALETTE was already on, so I turned it off...and it is the same....it flew all the way from off screen on the right and closed....so nothing refreshed.

If you can think of any other solutions, it is greatly appreciated !

Thanks,
 
Hi there,

Try opening excel, turning off the palette, closing it, THEN deleting the file. It may be that the program retained the position settings since it was on. (Totally guessing, but worth a shot.)

Failing that, can you set your screen resolution larger temporarily to see if you can get it back on screen to move it? Or plug it into your TV to act as a second monitor?
 
elizabethk said:
Hi Dave and Ken,

Thanks for replying.

Well Dave, I DID do what you said, I closed Excel and found the preference file and moved it to the trash. When I opened up Excel again, the VIEW PALETTE was already on, so I turned it off...and it is the same....it flew all the way from off screen on the right and closed....so nothing refreshed.

If you can think of any other solutions, it is greatly appreciated !

Thanks,
Click to expand...

In addition to Ken's options, if you're up for it, you may want to delete all of your office-related preferences in the Preferences folder. The reason I suggest that is that the palette may be tied to Office and not just an individual program - again, a longshot, but worth a try.

I really think that adjusting the resolution would be a great step if you don't have a second monitor available. I wish I could offer more definitive help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top