Redo and Undo broken after save

**jez6363** · 06-08-2010, 05:27 AM

Hi

I have Excel 2007, all updated, and it has a very annoying problem.

Undo / Redo - they do NOT work properly after a save. Before a save, its great - I can undo / redo many many changes.

After a save, I can only undo 2 changes, but the worst thing is it ONLY REDOES ONE of them.

I work by saving very regularly, then I go and look at something on the sheet, and then use Undo / Redo to get back to where I was last updating the sheet and see what I had just been working on, especially if its a few minutes in between.

However, when I do that now, it undoes my last change, but the redo has been lost. So I do:

change, save, undo, redo

and it just doesn't do the redo. The redo button is greyed out.

If I do:

change, change, save, undo, undo, redo, redo

the first redo works, and the second fails as the redo has been lost.

It seems pretty basic that undo / redo should be symmetrical but they aren't, at least now.

I would rather just not have undo after save at all than this broken version.

Anyone know a way around this? Is it on Microsofts buglist to fix? Is it fixed in 2010?

Why are they putting so much stuff in Excel but they can't even get one of the most basic parts of spreadsheets correct - such as undo / redo, and the ability to open independent spreadsheets without having to change things in the registry (which I have had to do so I can work on two spreadsheets in a semi-sane fashion, undo being shared across your sheets otherwise). MS needs a back to basics...

**masteff** · 06-08-2010, 10:58 AM

This, unfortunately, has been the way redo/undo has worked in Excel for many years. It's even more obnoxious when an autosave wipes out undo right in the middle of trying some "what if" numbers in a spreadsheet.

It's doubly annoying to me since MS Word does NOT wipe the redo/undo after a save. So two different programs in Office do it two different ways.

I can't speak to how it works (or rather fails to work) in Excel 2010.

**jez6363** · 06-11-2010, 04:24 AM

I HAVE FOUND THE PROBLEM AND A FIX !!!!!

I just happened to notice that my wifes computer didn't have the same problem, even though it was the same version of Office and Windows.

I went through every option and eventually got to the Addins. I was clutching at straws as every other option was the same, but I noticed that I had the Google Desktop Office Addin enabled on mine.

So I just disabled it (via the Manage option at the bottom, to manage Com Addins) and IT FIXED MY UNDO REDO PROBLEMS.

I cannot believe it - all that hassle for months because of some broken Addin.

I assume its actually a problem with Googles side of things - I think the addin came from Google Desktop - one has to wonder if they deliberately decided to mess around with Excel, given their competetive situation re spreadsheets...

Actually, the Addin causes a lot more problems - selecting lots of rows in big spreadsheets is now much quicker too.

In fact the Google Desktop Office Addin is just plain evil - have a look on the forums for problems its causing - DISABLE IT everyone, its a performance killer.

**teylyn** · 06-11-2010, 05:11 AM

Jez, nice spotting. Thanks for the report.

I can confirm that Google Desktop has been the cause of a few of my own "inexplicable" problems with a few Office apps. I'm not too sure about the intentional side of things, though, but, hey.... paranoia can be crucial for survival!

**Domski** · 06-11-2010, 05:14 AM

I found when I took Google Desktop off my home pc it fixed a number of issues. It was only then that I did a search and found out that it was about the worst thing you could install.

You live and learn.

Dom

**lconnelly1** · 04-02-2013, 08:35 PM

Garrrrrg! Add-ins are evil!!! I know this is an old thread but I have been searching all morning and it was the ONLY ONE that came close to describing my problem (ie. undo working only once and redo not working at all). In my case it wasn't the google desktop but an SAS add-in. This add-in list will be the first thing I look at from now on when something goes truely "coockie" in a microsoft program. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR SHARING