MBA 13 problems with Excel Office 2011

[markr346]

Two strange issues that I can't fix on my new MB Air 13 with MS Office for MAC 2011 and Excel.

1) I can't get the Standard Toolbar to show up when I open a new worksheet. I go to view, toolbars and then see that the Standard Toolbar is checked, but it doesn't show up. The only way to get it to show up is to do a series of steps:
- uncheck Standard Toolbar menu and go back out;
- go back in and check the Standard Toolbar and back to the spreadsheet - the Standard Toolbar still doesn't show up;
- so then I click on the Layout tab on the ribbon ... and then it shows up!

2) I can't see the bottom of the window/spreadsheet -- which means I can't resize the window. To resolve this, I have to do these steps:
- open system preferences, and change my MB Air screen resolution from 1440 x 900 down to 1280 x 800 ...
- then go back to the spreadsheet, and resize the window (make it smaller on the screen)
- go back and resize the window back to 1440 x 900
- and then close the system preferences ... at this point, the Excel spreadsheet window is smaller and I can see/use the bottom of the screen to resize, etc. etc. etc.

Strange ... can't figure out what setting I have wrong or why I can't get Excel for Mac 2011 to work correctly on the MB Air screen ...

Any ideas or solutions is appreciated.

[robby818]

For #2 if you hit the green button (top left corner of the window) the window goes to max. then resize by grabbing the lower right corner to make it smaller. Now toggle the green button and it should behave correctly. I think the setting should stick if you quit excel and restart but I did not test it. I noticed this issue too on my MBA 11"

[teski]

I'm not seeing either of those. When Excel 2011 opens, I can see the full worksheet. If I click the green +, it just extends the right side to fill the screen, but never does the bottom disappear.

As for the toolbar, the standard shows up at launch and I can't repro what you're seeing.

Has it been this way since you first installed?

[markr346]

Yes, it's been that way from the start.

Got a fix directly from Microsoft. Here's what must have happened.

I had a MBPro 15" with Office 2008 and I did a Time Machine transfer from the MBP 15" to the MBA 13". On the MBA 13" I upgraded to MS Office 2011 for the MAC ... but I must have kept some of the 2008 preferences after doing an uninstall of 2008.

Microsoft told me I needed to delete these two items in my preferences file (they commented I might have some "corruption in my Excel preferences"):
- com.Microsoft.Excel.plist (drag to trash and delete)
- the Microsoft Folder (drag to trash and delete)

After doing that, the Standard Toolbar was fixed and now shows up.

And the bottom of the spreadsheet, and the screen sizing corner tool, now show up so I can resize Excel screens, etc. Both problems fixed. Must have been corrupt preferences.

BTW - love the MBA 13" ... no degradation in performance over my late 2007 MBPro 15" ... and love the size/weight and speed at start-up and shut-down.

Thanks for the comments.

[teski]

Originally Posted by markr346

Yes, it's been that way from the start.

Got a fix directly from Microsoft. Here's what must have happened.

I had a MBPro 15" with Office 2008 and I did a Time Machine transfer from the MBP 15" to the MBA 13". On the MBA 13" I upgraded to MS Office 2011 for the MAC ... but I must have kept some of the 2008 preferences after doing an uninstall of 2008.

Microsoft told me I needed to delete these two items in my preferences file (they commented I might have some "corruption in my Excel preferences"):
- com.Microsoft.Excel.plist (drag to trash and delete)
- the Microsoft Folder (drag to trash and delete)

After doing that, the Standard Toolbar was fixed and now shows up.

And the bottom of the spreadsheet, and the screen sizing corner tool, now show up so I can resize Excel screens, etc. Both problems fixed. Must have been corrupt preferences.

BTW - love the MBA 13" ... no degradation in performance over my late 2007 MBPro 15" ... and love the size/weight and speed at start-up and shut-down.

Thanks for the comments.

Excellent! Glad it was fixed!

[LGF]

Originally Posted by markr346

Yes, it's been that way from the start.

Got a fix directly from Microsoft. Here's what must have happened.

I had a MBPro 15" with Office 2008 and I did a Time Machine transfer from the MBP 15" to the MBA 13". On the MBA 13" I upgraded to MS Office 2011 for the MAC ... but I must have kept some of the 2008 preferences after doing an uninstall of 2008.

Microsoft told me I needed to delete these two items in my preferences file (they commented I might have some "corruption in my Excel preferences"):
- com.Microsoft.Excel.plist (drag to trash and delete)
- the Microsoft Folder (drag to trash and delete)

After doing that, the Standard Toolbar was fixed and now shows up.

And the bottom of the spreadsheet, and the screen sizing corner tool, now show up so I can resize Excel screens, etc. Both problems fixed. Must have been corrupt preferences.

BTW - love the MBA 13" ... no degradation in performance over my late 2007 MBPro 15" ... and love the size/weight and speed at start-up and shut-down.

Thanks for the comments.

Eh... For a guy who's not that familiar to location of files... Could you please tell us were those two items are located? I do have the same problem, but I couldn't find the .plist file or the folder...

Thanx...

[themunn]

I had the same problem. An easy fix by deleting the preference files.

The files are located in user > preferences.

Cheers

[redkiteflyer]

I have the same issue, and also can't find the preference files
I don't have a folder called 'User' anywhere.. I looked under the folder of my name but there isn't one under that called 'Preferences'

Know I'm being really blonde, but if you can help I'd really appreciate it. I have to do the same workaround as 'markr346', i.e. uncheck the already 'checked' tool bar options under View, and then check them again. Very frustrating.

I'm still on Excel for Mac 2008 and using a 13" MacBookPro and it has always been this way... Until now I didn't use Excel that much on this machine, but I am about to do some work for a client and have to use my own machine!

Thanks in advance

[keltoid]

The files are located in user > preferences.



^^^ Some others asked, but no response was given - don't know where to find this. I was hoping to find out how I can get Excel files (from others) to open so that I can see the bottom (Status bar) -- so I can see if there are tabs with additional information I need, without having to go to View Full Screen all the time. Just want it to open and not show me all the extraneous rows that have nothing in them- is this possible? Working on an Imac with OSX. Any help you can give is appreciated.

Could not find a "user/preferences" location with Microsoft plist files to delete.