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I have a button that should be clickable in excel. When I try to click it, nothing happens. I have noticed that if I click and hold the mouse in the lower right hand corner, a second button appears. This has happened in the past, and when I moved the mouse to click that button, I could click and everything would work.

But this time, when I move the mouse, the button goes away. Thus, I cannot make the program work.

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Anyone know what could be going on?

UPDATE: I tried to do this with a form control button, but I get the error that the macro is too complex. I have also tried several other active-x controls and they all do the same thing - label, checkbox, dropdown list, etc... Any help with the active-x controls would be greatly appreciated.

Apolymoxic
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  • Have you looked at [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27411399/microsoft-excel-activex-controls-disabled)? – BigBen May 22 '19 at 21:42
  • @BigBen This isn't the same issue. This is not being able to create the object, or the items doing nothing. This item does something... just not what I want it to do. However, I do agree with the premise - an update made it stop working. Nonetheless, this is a shared workbook and I cannot update everyone's company computer to make this thing work. I was hoping it was something more like settings, or something I could change in the properties of the button. Maybe an alternate to a button?? – Apolymoxic May 22 '19 at 21:58
  • @BigBen For good measure, I followed the step in that answer, and it didn't fix anything. But I do appreciate you trying. =) – Apolymoxic May 22 '19 at 22:00
  • Yeah I'm not surprised. I had a similar issue recently, same behavior where if you clicked and held, the second button appeared. I tried the suggestion of the linked answer and had no luck. I ended up ditching ActiveX controls entirely as a result - form controls are an option, or just a regular shape with a macro assigned to it. – BigBen May 22 '19 at 22:08
  • @BigBen As soon as I figure out how to assign a VB script to a macro, I will go that route. I know it can't be hard... just haven't looked it up yet. – Apolymoxic May 22 '19 at 22:22

3 Answers3

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I found a solution to the issue. It appears that if you have the excel file open on an additional monitor (I have 3 screens: main + 2 additional), the button gives this quirky behavior. However, if you are the main screen, it works just fine.

I tried this on multiple computers and it was the same on all.

Not sure why that works, but it does for me.

Apolymoxic
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    Similar behavior on my side. I just decided to get rid of activeX. I prefer being able to use Excel on a second monitor. – BigBen May 23 '19 at 13:48
  • Same for checkboxes. It seems like the difference in UI scaling is what's causing the issue. Controls work when I changed the UI scaling of my secondaries to match my primary. – kelvinilla Apr 30 '21 at 18:05
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    Thank you. This has been plaguing me for a while now on my main desktop computer... Moving excel onto the main monitor now makes the button "clickable" again. Considering that this exact issue is at least 1.5years old, I'm not expecting this to be fixed anytime soon... – BriL Dec 14 '22 at 19:47
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    This solved it for me too. But since I'm building a tool to be used by lots of people with various desktop setups, it seems these checkboxes are not a solution. It's very annoying that Excel isn't made to work with multiple monitors. – Michael T Feb 03 '23 at 14:06
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I found that ActiveX command buttons only worked with the first window of a given workbook. I have multiple windows of the same workbook open in the same instance of Excel. ActiveX command buttons worked only with filename.xlsb - 1. ActiveX buttons were inoperable for the workbook's other windows, e.g., filename.xlsb - 2, filename.xlsb - 3, etc. This was irrespective of which monitor had the first window.

If somebody knows how to fix this, I'm all ears. For now, I am converting all my buttons to form controls, which always work fine.

Rocky Scott
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In Excel 365, "Display Settings" appears on the right-hand side of the status bar at the bottom. Here, the display compatibility can be optimized. Once this is done, it should work. enter image description here

Alex Hösli
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  • But it looks like you would have to do this for every screen, every time. If you open the sheet on the main screen, it doesn't happen at all. – Apolymoxic Apr 26 '23 at 13:44