J-Walk & Associates, Inc.

Annoying Window Behavior

You know what's annoying about Excel?

Assume that you have the VB Editor window open. You click Excel' minimize button to minimize the app to get it out of the way. Then you see the VB Editor window, and realize that there's no need for it to be open. So you close it -- and Excel's window pops back up!

Yeah, as far as annoyances go, it's a minor thing. But it's been going on since Excel 5. With every new version, I keep hoping it will be fixed, but it never is. I can't think of a single reason why closing the VB Editor window should restore Excel's window.

What little Excel quirks do you find annoying?

- Reader Comments -

Following are comments in response to this item.
The most recent comment is at the bottom.

1. By fzz. Comment posted 03 February, 2010 6:08pm

   Excel's clipboard functionality, which is different from any other application, which I figure traces its origins back to the original Mac version, is top of my list of annoyances.
2. By Andy. Comment posted 03 February, 2010 9:21pm

   Let's say I've been working in the VBE, then I close it to return to excel, then I lock my work station. When I come back and unlock my work station the VBE is open again. Can this be fixed?
3. By Gordon. Comment posted 04 February, 2010 1:07am

   I echo Andy's comment, the VBE popping up after the PC has been locked is quite annoying, especially if I've been on someone else's PC and tweaked something for them. They go away for a break etc. then see the VBE when they unlock their workstation and think they have done something wrong. Cue a phone call to me....
4. By Jeff Weir. Comment posted 04 February, 2010 3:29am

   I hate the fact that you can't resize some dialog boxes that really need it. Some of the MS Query windows are just a joke.
5. By Sebastien Labonne. Comment posted 04 February, 2010 6:55am

   Just like Andy, I hate that the VBE window keeps opening up. Sometimes, the toolbar aren't even there so I need to close the VBE window and reopen it.
   
   I've also seen this behavior with Outlook. The only way I found to fix this is by closing the application and reopening it.
6. By chrisham. Comment posted 04 February, 2010 8:01am

   What's very annoying, is the Formula Evaluator window, which is not expandable. Also I wish they had a BACK button command on it, that would enable you to go back, rather than start the formula evaluator from the begining again.
7. By Joe. Comment posted 04 February, 2010 8:40am

   What I find annoying is that in Excel 2007, when I zoom out (let's say to 80% )and then use the "page break preview" and switch back to "normal" it forgets that it was on 80% and goes back to 100%. Maybe I just don't know how to fix it . . . but I find it annoying
8. By Jared. Comment posted 04 February, 2010 10:57am

   The fact that if a file on the "recent files" menu gets moved or deleted, and you click on the file in the menu, all you get is an error message; it doesn't ask you if you'd like to remove the file from the list, as it does with add-ins.
   
   Since I'm feeling grumpy, I'll also mention that I don't care for the way that "pinning" recently used files in Excel 2007 works. I'm not in front of my home PC w/Excel 2007 now, so I can't say for sure--but doesn't it re-order the pinned items as they're opened? If I like a file enough to use it really frequently, I'd like to grab it from the same position in the list each time. And also to be able to manually move the items in the list by clicking/dragging, as you can with Favorites in IE.
9. By John Walkenbach. Comment posted 04 February, 2010 12:00pm

   Jared, you'd probably love the Bookmark feature in my PUP add-in. It's my favorite feature, and it has completely replaced the recent file list for me.
   
   Press Ctrl+Shift+B, and the list opens at the active cell. You can scroll through the list, or use a hot key that you assign to a specific file.
10. By Hui.... Comment posted 05 February, 2010 8:10am

    For me its the use of the Arrow Keys in the Name Manager
    Pressing the arrow keys in the formula edit line should move the cursor in the Formula edit line, not move the current cell and then put the Cell Reference into the formula.
    
    I'd also like to be able to resize the Name Manager window to make it better suit long named formulas.
    
    I know there are lots of add-ins that fix some of the above, but you don't always have access to these.
11. By John Walkenbach. Comment posted 05 February, 2010 9:01am

    Hui, in the Name Manger, press F2 exit point mode and get into edit mode. Since you mention the Name Manger, I assume you're using Excel 2007. That dialog box is resizable.
12. By Jared. Comment posted 05 February, 2010 10:00am

    John,
    
    I like the idea of your Bookmark feature. Since I wasn't aware of it at the time, I wrote a proc that adds a "Favorites" to the menu bar. It lets you add files and/or folders, and it even lets you group them into categories. Its main weakness is that to edit the list of favorites, you have to unhide Personal.xls, manually change the list, save and re-hide Personal.xls, then either restart Excel or run the Workbook_Open procedure for Personal.xls. Ugh. But I only change it once a month, so no big deal.
    
    But getting back to Excel annoyances, what's the deal with the "Cannot empty the clipboard" message that appears sometimes after a Paste operation?
13. By Hui.... Comment posted 06 February, 2010 9:40pm

    Thanx John
    All these years of frustration are now history.
14. By Fred C. Comment posted 01 March, 2010 9:05pm

    I know I'm late here, but it has been snowing, one thing I have not noticed before is I have been using the sort the icon just to the right of the A-Z/Z-A icons. Do two or three or more sorts and the box starts moving each it gets bigger and bigger. I was using it with recording a macro the other day putting some survey results in ranking order. Knowing each day the results would change so instead of doing it manually I recorded a macro. The sort box kept getting bigger and biger I resized it about 6 times no way to lock it in place.