Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Problem with Missing Context Menu Option.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 28, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016
Rita has encountered a situation at her workplace that has her scratching her head. They have an employee who can right-click on any cell and the Format Cells option is not available on the resulting Context menu. Rita is wondering what is necessary to get the Context menu option back.
It is possible that the Context menu that is displayed when you right-click on a cell has, over time, become modified in some way. You can reset this particular Context menu by using a very simple macro:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here:
Sub ResetContextMenu()
CommandBars("Cell").Reset
End Sub
If this does not do the trick, or if the menu inexplicably changes at some future point, the culprit could very well be some sort of add-in or a particular macro in a workbook. Determining which of the macros is doing the modification can take some serious detective work. If you can access the macros in the add-in or workbook, you might want to just search through the VBA code to see if you can find the text "CommandBars" to see what is being changed.
If you cannot access the macro code (perhaps the add-in or workbook is protected), then you will need to go through a trial-and-error process where you stop the loading of the add-ins, one by one, until you determine which one causes a change in the Context menu.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11786) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Problem with Missing Context Menu Option.
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