First few characters in formula bar invisible

[Drake Tungsten]

A colleague of mine has run this problem past me, but I'm not able to help her - I've never seen this behavior before and don't know what sort of guidance to give.
In various files and over the course of at least the past few weeks, when checking on the contents of a cell in the formula bar, the first 5 or so characters are invisible to the user, i.e., the first part of the formula can't be read on the screen. The underlying formulas seem to function properly and if I copy and paste the entire formula to the another application (ex., notepad) I can then see the full formula.
What's happened here? And, how can I help her restore her copy of Excel to functioning properly again?

 

[Joe4]

Welcome to the Board!

When you see really odd behavior like that, your best bet is probably to re-install Excel on that workstation, as it sounds like it might be a corruption issue.

 

[excelandaccess]

For me the problem was that my laptop display was thinking there were two monitors. I only have one monitor (the laptop screen). right click on the desktop and select properties. Then, click the settings tab. There are probably two monitors (1 & 2 square displayed). Click on the second plug n play (it may even say default), then go to advanced and disable that device.

I'm not sure why that connects to this Excel problem, but it fixed it for me.


I must give credit from this thread that helped guide me to the correct ballpark:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/mi...cdb599f36f0?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1#37507cdb599f36f0

 

[nai1817]

If you are using 2 monitors, try moving your excel window to the other monitor.

 

[MetaData]

If you are using 2 monitors, try moving your excel window to the other monitor.

This worked for me! I had been getting bothered about this for a while, and now I have a workaround. Thanks!