XL: Cannot Enable or Disable Built-in Commands with a Macro

• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
• Microsoft Excel for Windows NT, version 5.0
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, versions 5.0, 5.0a
• Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

When you run a macro that attempts to set the Enabled property for a built- in menu command or a submenu command, you receive an error message.

In Microsoft Excel 97 and Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, you receive the following error message:

   Run-time error '1004':
   Application-defined or object-defined error

   Run-time error '1005':
   Cannot enable built-in commands.

CAUSE

In Microsoft Excel, you cannot enable or disable built-in menu commands and submenu commands. You can only set the Enabled property for a menu command that you add to a menu.

RESOLUTION

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

   http://www.microsoft.com/supportnet/refguide/

Simulating Disabling a Built-in Menu Command

You cannot enable or disable a built-in menu command. However, you can create a macro that gives a built-in menu command the appearance of being disabled.

The sample macro in this article "disables" the built-in Exit menu command on the File menu. This macro performs the following steps:

1. The built-in menu command location is saved.

2. The built-in menu command is deleted.

3. A custom menu command with the same caption and index is added to the menu.

4. The custom menu command is disabled.

Sample Macro

   Sub Disable_Builtin_MenuItem()

       Dim i
       Dim x

       'If you are using Microsoft Excel on the Macintosh replace
       'the word "Exit" with "Quit" on the following line
       With MenuBars(xlWorksheet).Menus("File").MenuItems("Exit")
           i = .Index     'Save the position of the built-in menu command.
           .Delete        'Delete the built-in menu command.
       End With

       'Add a custom menu command with the same caption and index as the
       'built-in menu command that you deleted.
       Set x = MenuBars(xlWorksheet).Menus("File").MenuItems.Add _
           (Caption:="Exit", before:=i)
       x.Enabled = False
   
   End Sub

Resetting the Menu That Is Changed by the Sample Macro

To reset the entire menu to the default values, run the following macro:

   Sub ResetMenubar()

      MenuBars(xlWorksheet).Reset

   End Sub

STATUS

This behavior is by design of the programs listed at the beginning of this article.

REFERENCES

For additional information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q163435
   TITLE     : VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic  
               for Applications