Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007 and 2010. 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.
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 and 2010. 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.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11786) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007 and 2010. 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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2016-06-09 14:14:40
Tim Arnold
That worked! Thank you.
2016-03-06 11:45:42
Peter Atherton
Lawrie
Joe's sugestion be;ow might work
CommandBars("Sheet").Reset
I ran this in the immediate window and it did not do any harm; if it does not work try 'Sheets' instead
2015-04-27 07:05:56
Lawrie
A colleague has this command bar issue. We fixed it for cells, rows and columns using the suggstion above and substituting rows and columns for 'cells'. However she has still lost the right click context menu on the worksheet tabs at the bottom or workbooks. Any ideas how to fix this last part?
TIA
2015-03-03 14:42:53
Ross
The Immediate Pane of the VBE appears when (in the VBE window) you click on "Immediate Window Ctrl+G", or just Ctrl+G.
2015-03-03 07:18:25
Barry
I haven't tried this but running "CommandBars("Cell").Reset" in the Immediate Pane of te VBE would be slightly easier/quicker.
2014-09-15 15:25:38
Joe
This one worked!!!!! However, there are a couple of other steps:
- Press ALT +F11
- Open “Insert”
- Select “Module”
Copy/Paste this:
Sub ResetContextMenu()
CommandBars("Cell").Reset
End Sub
- Press the Run button on the top tool bar
- Close out of VB
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