XL98: Problems Disabling and Enabling Shortcut Menus

• Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, when you run a Visual Basic for Applications macro that attempts to enable or disable shortcut menus, the shortcut menus may not be enabled/disabled and you do not receive an error message.

CAUSE

This will occur if you attempt to enable or disable shortcut menus by using the ShortcutMenus method in a Visual Basic for Applications macro. For example:

   Sub DisableShortcutMenu()

       ' This does not work in Microsoft Excel 98.
       Application.ShortcutMenus(xlWorksheetCell).Enabled = False

   End Sub

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides examples of Visual Basic for Applications procedures 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. The Visual Basic procedures in this article are provided 'as is' and Microsoft does not guarantee that they can be used in all situations. While Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular macro, they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality, nor will they help you construct macros to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to consult one of the Microsoft Solution Providers. Solution Providers offer a wide range of fee-based services, including creating custom macros. For more information about Microsoft Solution Providers, call Microsoft Customer Information Service at (800) 426-9400.

If you want a macro to disable shortcut menus in Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, you must use the CommandBars method. For example:

   Sub DisableShortcutMenu()
       CommandBars("Cell").Enabled = False
   End Sub

   Sub EnableShortcutMenu()
       CommandBars("Cell").Enabled = True
   End Sub

STATUS

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition.

MORE INFORMATION

In Microsoft Excel, whenever you CONTROL+click any type of object within a worksheet, chart sheet, or dialog sheet, a shortcut menu appears with menu items that apply to the object that you clicked.

In Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, shortcut menus no longer belong to their own collection of objects (ShortcutMenus). They are now part of the CommandBars collection, which also includes menu bars and toolbars.

To prevent compatibility problems with Visual Basic for Applications macros created in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, the ShortcutMenus method still works in many cases: for example, you can use the ShortcutMenus method to add and delete menu items on shortcut menus.

However, you cannot use the ShortcutMenus method to enable or disable a shortcut menu in Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition. Instead, you must use the CommandBars method, as shown in the "Workaround" section.