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Today, out of the blue, a form that the company I work for uses, suddenly had an issue with it's buttons. Strangely enough it only is affecting what I'm pretty sure are the ActiveX Command Buttons and not causing a problem with the other shapes or drop downs.

The issue. The buttons are non-responsive. When you click, they don't access the code and checking them via the shapes menu and selecting "view code" causes them to open the developer menu, but not the code associated with them. The really big issue is that for some reason they ALL seem to have started failing at the same time. The version on the server no longer works (the primary copy), the copy the user uses (notorious for breaking things) and the version I use (which is on my local computer).

Is there a way to take them an re-associate them with the proper code, without deleting them completely re-making them or is there possibly someone who's had the same issue and figured out a fix?

I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions or help - please note: I'm 99.9% sure that the issue is not code based.

Will
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    Simple question, but are you in Design Mode? You will know by hovering over the button: "ActiveX" mode will show a normal mouse button & Design Mode will show an Up/Down/Left/Right arrow-crosshair and will allow you to right click on the button? Also, do these workbooks work on someone else's computer? – Michael Dec 12 '14 at 00:03
  • I am not in design mode when I'm trying to run the program. Mousing over the buttons continues to give the standard arrow pointer – Will Dec 12 '14 at 00:37
  • Are the macros still present? Press Alt+F8, select **This Workbook** from *Macros in:* and see if any macros are present. – Michael Dec 12 '14 at 01:02
  • There have been several questions on this same problem today, so perhaps there's been a patch pushed out recently which broke stuff... – Tim Williams Dec 12 '14 at 01:19
  • Further to @TimWilliams comment check [this](http://dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2014/12/11/recent-update-of-office-causes-problems-with-activex-controls/) link – Cool Blue Dec 12 '14 at 02:29
  • This seems like an issue created by macro security features, such as the location no longer "Trusted". – Smandoli Dec 12 '14 at 03:57
  • The ActiveX controls issue was definitely the problem, the answer down below will fix the issue. – Will Dec 12 '14 at 18:38

1 Answers1

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The problem is caused by a recent Office update. Here is the fix posted on http://excelmatters.com/2014/12/10/office-update-breaks-activex-controls/

To fix it, do this:

  1. Close all Office applications.
  2. Do a search in Windows Explorer – make sure to include hidden and system files and folders – for *.exd files (note: that’s not *.exe !!) and delete any you find. Make sure you get these: C:\users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\Excel8.0\MSForms.exd C:\users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\VBE\MSForms.exd
  3. Reboot the computer (this is not always necessary, but probably better safe than sorry)
  4. Restart your Office apps and test the controls again.
teylyn
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  • This definitely fixed the issue, thank you very much. Just a note though, for some reason when I first opened a spreadsheet in excel it says "Error Sending to Program", so open Excel into a blank spreadsheet. – Will Dec 12 '14 at 18:37
  • If this is your answer, please mark it. – teylyn Dec 12 '14 at 20:53