Excel 2004: document/workbook windows disappearing!
 

Excel 2004 (version 11.2) has just started doing something very bizarre and very counterproductive. Whenever I copy some cells and then deselect them (or paste some cells that I've cut), the workbook window I'm in DISAPPEARS! It doesn't close, it doesn't get minimized, it just becomes invisible. And if I've double-clicked in a cell to cause this, the cell remains visible, just floating on top of the rest of the screen. If i have other Excel documents open, they're fine, and I have to click in one of those, then re-select the disappeared document form the Window folder for it to reappear. Or sometimes, and especially if there's just one Excel document opened, I have to switch to a different application and then back to Excel to get my window back.

I now have seen the problem happen with other commands too, such as Insert Column, and Save.
I've now also determined that the problem appears to occur only after at least a few commands have been made. For example, after I open Excel, the first few cut & paste commands may work, and THEN the trouble starts.

I recently installed a number of new applications (e.g. Palm Desktop & HotSync, SOHO Notes), so I figured they may be causing the trouble. I restarted with no login apps running and opened Excel only. Problem persists.

I removed the two add-in excel bits I had added. Problem persists.

I turned off iDisk syncing, which I had recently turned on. Problem persists.

I used Cocktail to clean caches and run crons, and used Disk Utility to repair permissions. Rebooted. Problem persists.

I used the Remove Office tool to uninstall Office 2004. Then I reinstalled Office 2004, and installed all the updates again. Problem persists.

I'm checking for viruses right now, but I've had Sophos Anti-virus running the whole time.

Agh! Can anyone think of anything? This bug is keeping me from doing my work so any help would be MUCH appreciated!

Edit: I'm on a G5 dual 2.3ghz running OS X 10.4.3 with 2gb RAM.

I work with Excel a lot but have never seen this behavior. One other thing to try: create a new account if you don't have another already and see if the problem occurs in it. If it doesn't, it may be a problem with a font in you home fonts folder or an Excel preference file.

Especially if the issue doesn't occur again in a new account, the files to move out of the ~/Library/Preferences folder are com.microsoft.excel.plist and in the Microsoft folder within the Preferences folder com.microsoft.excel.prefs.plist

If you realy want to do a complete clean up of office and reinstall from zero, you have to do the uninstall as you did before, but then you'd have to go and delete any associated plist file for it in your account and others (if they display the same symptoms) and only once all of the files have been removed you should re-install Office. That way it should be a clean install.

Thanks for the suggestions. I switched to a different account and messed around on Excel for a short time, and didn't run into the problem. Even tried using the same files I'd been using in my main account. So I tried trashing those two pref files and opening Excel again. Problem persists.

I guess I need to run Remove Office and then trash ALL microsoft preferences? Should I just delete the whole Microsoft folder out of the user preferences folder? What else? Any other files hiding anywhere?

You can indeed trash all MS prefs from the ~/Library/Preferences folder, including the Microsoft folder. Also, if you do not use Entourage for your email, you can also delete the ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data folder to realy make this a clean slate.

You might also compare the ~/Library/Fonts folder in each account. Maybe one of you other programs installed an odd or corrupted font in you regular account. Have you inspected fonts in your regular account with FontBook?

Wow, I got really lucky and a kind soul in a newsgroup pointed me to the answer....

PROBLEM SOLVED! It is caused by the OpenBase Database Engine used by StickyBrain and SOHO Notes/Organizer/etc. It appears that there is no fix or workaround except to uninstall the applications and the database engine. Hopefully Chronos (parent company) will fix this bizarre bug soon.

See here.

And here.

But thanks to all you here also; I've learned a little more about troubleshooting with preferences, uninstalling, and fonts.

OpenBase SQL is not the cause. Here is the update:

Chronos, who bundles OpenBase SQL in their SOHO products, has found and fixed the problem. It was an API call that Stickybrain made to the NSWorkspace to manage contextual menus. Apparently some bug in the Cocoa API triggers an issue with Carbon apps such as Excel. They have worked around the problem and have posted an update to their software.

Holy whoah! That was some fast response by Chronos! It hasn't been long since their last update. Thanks very much for the heads up and clarification. I will install the new version.

Excel 2004: document/workbook windows disappearing!
 

I have been experiencing the same problem with my new Mac Mini, which has never heard of Sticky brain.

I noticed it a couple of months ago with my husband's laptop. And one of our friends just mentioned it yesterday--he even went to use a PC! because it was that problematic.

I cannot say if the Lap top or the friends computers have "sticky brain" installed (i will check) but does anyone have any other solutions??

By the way it has started happening in Word too!
Sylvia

You should try the standard troubleshooting suggestions:
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/ (see the "My Mac needs help" section)
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...04011205473937
http://forums.osxfaq.com/viewtopic.php?t=7269
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/faqs.html

In particular, be sure to try logging in as a different user to see if the problem exists there. (Create a new user via the Accounts preference panel if you only have the one user account so far.)

I've been having this problem for about 6 months. It started on a Powerbook, and then, lucky me, moved with me to my MacBookPro. I'm currently running 10.4.9 but cannot remember which version of the OS I was on when I first started to see the issue. I also have a colleague who is experiencing similar issues.

I do not have stickybrain installed.

I found a corrupt font and deleted it, and things seemed better for awhile, but as soon as I got into heavy Excel use again it was back. I was also able to reproduce this as another user.

I've also tried uninstalling office, deleting all the preference files I could find, re-installing, and then upgrading to the most recent version (I'm currently on 11.3.3 (061213)).

I recently found an article in a usenet group that said you could try deleting the Excel plist files in ~/Library/Preferences and ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft, and I was still able to reproduce the error.

Nothing has worked. This is driving me nuts and cuts my productivity in half. Any assistance would be appreciated.

I have been having this problem for the last 2 months, it seems to be getting progressively worse. I also do not have Stickybrain. I have tried all the fixes suggested on this form (and every other one I can find) and the problem comes back. I did create a new account and try to work in that account but the problem came back in about 60 seconds.

I too have this problem on a number of macs since updating to 10.4.9 and the latest version of office....is there a cure

I unfortunately can't give you any technical help with the microsoft products, but if worse comes to worse and you have something that you just have to work on, you could always go to http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php and DL there office suite. It is supposed to do a wonderful job of working with most all MS office files. This would allow you guys to continue working until you get a fix figured out.

NOTE: I would make copies of your office documents first before opening them in NeoOffice, until you are sure that you will not lose anything like macros and such in the transition. Although you should not have any problems with like 90% of all documents out there.

Hope this gets you guys up and running at least in a temporary state.

AG

Office: mac 2004: Word and Excel vanshing windows
 

I have discovered this problem now in Word as well and I have tried all of the solutions posted here. I use a MacBook with the most updated versions of Office:Mac 2004 Student and Teacher Edition and OS X 10.4.9.

Basically the issue starts to occur when I hit the delete key while working on a document. The widow I am currently working on disappears. I can reselect the window from the window drop down menu and the window comes back but promptly disappears again.

At this point I shutdown the MacBook and restart which delays the onset of the problem but makes it impossible to work. After a full shutdown and restart it takes about 2-10 mins for the problem to start occurring.

I have been playing with the idea that it is a compatibility problem with the microsoft mouse drivers and/or keyboard I am using. And will attempt to not use them to see if this helps.

I fear that it may be a fatal flaw/glitch in the program itself?

Back to restarting my Mac.

For me this worked. I stopped using my microsoft mouse and keyboard and the problem has not returned. I did not delete the drivers but just stopped using these devices. Which may pin this all to a driver conflict. I would suggest that while using Office for Mac that you use mac based keyboards and mice.

Keyboard/Mouse Theory
 

I have had the issue through multiple mice and keyboards, mostly Logitech, I created a macro trhat deletes the prefs (Excel) and that helps a little, it seems that even using the macro after every couple of keystrokes things get progressively worse as I continue to use Excel to the point where the macro has no effect and the wondow dissapears with every action in excel.

disappearing workbooks
 

I have also had this same problem for a few months. I did have soho notes installed but deleted all files and have had no improvement.

I am on a 2.16 ghz MacBook Pro with 2 gigs of ram. It doesn't matter whether I am plugged into a keyboard/mouse or not.

HELP, this is driving me nuts!!!

I wonder if it is an apple plan to get people to drop excel in favor of their new spreadsheet app.....http://forums.macosxhints.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

i use an apple keyboard and mouse at work and the built in keyboard and track pad at home... and i have the same issues. i just tried deleting all the contextual menu items in /Library and ~/Library based on the stickybrain stuff above. maybe that will help.

I created a macro that deletes the plist files between every excel action and I am still having windows disappear - so I assume the problem has nothing to do with plists(?)

You can open up console application and monitor the activity and see if anything unusual is recorded by this application. You can go to the Preferences of this application and set it to come to the front whenever there is a change.

This would probably be a good place to start.

Seriously doubt it. Excel is to entrenched in the business community. It is that Apple is just providing another alternative to use spread sheet on the Mac.

I found a solution for the great disappearing excel window... at least it worked for me and my colleagues. We all have a third party app called "Noteshare" installed on our machines. It seems that the contextual menu items that this app installs were causing the issue. Once I deleted them, the issue stopped.

Even if you are not using Noteshare, it could be contextual menu items from another 3rd party app. I noticed on some other forums that an application called "Sticky Brain" was doing the same thing.

To remove your contextual menu items, delete all files in the following locations:
/Library/Contextual Menu Items
~/Library/Contextual Menu Items

Thanks - that seemed to be the same issue for me... I had recently installed a Trial version of NoteTaker which is from the same company as NoteShare. And I just noticed this problem with a workbook in Excel...

I uninstalled it and removed both NoteTaker related entries in the Contextual Menu Items folders (/Libraries and ~Libraries)... now the Excel disappearing window problem is gone.

NoteTaker Plugin was the Culprit for Me Too
 

This is a "me too" post. I found this thread by searching for the exact same problem. I followed the advice of pulling the NoteTakerCMPlugin.plugin file out of the /Library/Contextual Menu Items/ folder. It worked right away and the problem disappeared!

I had a weird thing happen. I closed an Excel file. When I reopened it, you could not see the workbook. The icon was not missing. Thought there was a problem like above, however, come to find out that the workbook was hidden by Excel. Had to manually unhide it under Window>Unhide.

Freaked me out for an hour or so.