Question: “Occasionally in Excel, I have a table open but it isn’t visible. I know the table is open because the name bar tells me it is in cell A1, etc., and the formula bar tells me what is in that cell, but the screen is completely gray. You cannot see the table. I can move from cell to cell with my arrow keys, but I cannot see the table or cells on the screen. The only way to view the table is in full screen mode, which doesn’t have the task bars available. Does anyone know what the problem is and how to fix it?” — Diana
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I just found out something else that is part of the problem. If you ctrl-alt-delete and click on Task Manager, you may see EXCEL.EXE in there twice. This is apparently a glitch. It is as if the Excel document didn’t actually close when it should have. Our firm administrator is working in this problem. We are using Word and Excel 2007, and we are working out of ProSystem fx Engagement. These things may all be contributing to the problem. But for now, the easiest fix is to click on View/Arrange All and click on Tile. That brought up the Excel worksheet that should have already been closed but wasn’t. When you close it, then the “invisible” table appears. Again I say, “weird!”
Thanks Nan, this is the closest solution. I just had it happen again and I tried that. It displayed another Excel file that I had worked on earlier and had closed, at least it should have been closed. It wasn’t visible until I hit Arrange All. These Excel files do not show up as minimized. They “aren’t there”, but they are. How weird. I’m working on them in ProSystem fx Engagement. Maybe that is where the problem lies. Thanks again.
Melissa Esquibel, Certified Microsoft Office Master Instructor, and our Office Tech Pro blogger, offers a solution. See her post at http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/categories/Blogs/The-Office-Tech-Pro or http://www.adminprotoday.com.
It sounds like you might be in page break view. Click on View and Normal.
Do you have 2 monitors?
Situation: I’m working on file A and B. I stretch Excel over 2 monitors, then save file B to the “right side” of the dual screens. Next time I try to access file B, if I now have Excel over only 1 monitor, file B is still trying to appear on the “right side” even if I don’t have Excel stretched over 2 monitors.
If you can still see the Ribbon or Menus, try the View, Arrange All. Sometimes the document is minimized and other views are obscuring it. Arranging them brings them back to the main focus.
I’ve had the same problem when using Excel 2007. If you close the document, then exit out of Excel – the document is saved “closed” – hence a blank screen when you reopen the document. You have to exit Excel with the document open.