Format Cells Dialog Box won't display!

[Dave B]

Strange... in my worksheet, if I choose Format | Cells from the menu
(or press Ctrl+1), the Format Cells dialog box won't display. The only
time it will display is if I've selected all the cells at once
(Ctrl+a). This is of course a problem if I want to change the format
of any individual or group of cells. Has anyone ever heard of this?
Even after (via Ctlr+a then Ctrl+1) I uncheck "Locked" on the
protection tab, I still can't format individual cells.

A couple possible reasons: (1) the worksheet is a table that was
created from Access by pressing "Analyze with Excel" so maybe there's a
special setting or something which locks formatting, (2) the worksheet
was initially saved in Excel 2003 and I'm opening it in Excel 2000,
however, even when I copy the cells into a new workbook, the Format
Cells dialog box still won't display for those cells.

Thanks.

[Dave Peterson]

The only time I've seen this is when the original workbook was created in a
different program--crystal reports or Lotus 123.

I included a few "sacrificial" cells in my selection, made my changes to all of
them.

Then went back and fixed the sacrificial cells to the way they were supposed to
be. (Try a cell way out of the way of where the data really is.)

===
You may want to try copying the cells, then paste special formulas and paste
special formats into a new worksheet to see if you can format the cells then.

Dave B wrote:
>
> Strange... in my worksheet, if I choose Format | Cells from the menu
> (or press Ctrl+1), the Format Cells dialog box won't display. The only
> time it will display is if I've selected all the cells at once
> (Ctrl+a). This is of course a problem if I want to change the format
> of any individual or group of cells. Has anyone ever heard of this?
> Even after (via Ctlr+a then Ctrl+1) I uncheck "Locked" on the
> protection tab, I still can't format individual cells.
>
> A couple possible reasons: (1) the worksheet is a table that was
> created from Access by pressing "Analyze with Excel" so maybe there's a
> special setting or something which locks formatting, (2) the worksheet
> was initially saved in Excel 2003 and I'm opening it in Excel 2000,
> however, even when I copy the cells into a new workbook, the Format
> Cells dialog box still won't display for those cells.
>
> Thanks.

--

Dave Peterson