Comments on: Using RefEdit Controls in Excel Dialogs

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:02:55 +0000

Jan Karel Pieterse describes a problem and workaround with Application.InputBox in Getting a range from the user with VBA (Bug in Application.InputBox function). In Excel 95 through 2003, if the active sheet has conditional formatting using the Formula Is option, the InputBox method will fail. The bug was fixed in Excel 2007.

By: Nicholas Hebb

Nicholas Hebb — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:55:49 +0000

I use Application.InputBox(), but I’ve found it has quirks as well. I can’t remember off the top of my head, but I think it throws an error if the user clicks cancel. Also, I think the default range has to be passed as a Variant (which is never intuitive to me).

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:25:49 +0000

John -

Now that you ask, I’m not sure why I stated that. Maybe I’m thinking of something else, or maybe in the old days it worked that way. I just checked by installing Office (2002 FWIW) on a VM. And the RefEdit was there.

I’ve removed this section of the post. I can reuse part of it in an upcoming article about forms controls.

By: Jeff Weir

Jeff Weir — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:18:57 +0000

Jon – I just tried the CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW thing, using the dialog in your LOESS utility, and it works. But when I tried it back in Sept 2009 I swear it didn’t work.

Maybe something changed with how this function works? I did load a new vista SP today…would that have affected Excel? Or maybe it always worked like this.

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:08:57 +0000

Daniel & Jeff -

Right here in 2003 SP3 I just did the CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW thing, with only one cell selected first, and it worked. I remember it not working in the past, maybe, but it looks fine now.

By: John Walkenbach

John Walkenbach — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:12:36 +0000

“Out of the box, the Controls Toolbox does not have the RefEdit control.”

Are you sure about that. I don’t remember ever adding it to the Toolbox. I just checked a fresh installation of Excel 2010 Beta on a brand new system, and RefEdit was in the Toolbox.

By: Jeff Weir

Jeff Weir — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:28:51 +0000

Cool! Thanks Daniel.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:11:07 +0000

Jeff,

it does work. However you have to select two or more cells with the mouse; then the CTRL+SHIFT+arrow keys will do their job. I do it all the time.

By: Jeff Weir

Jeff Weir — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:54:20 +0000

It’s a shame that RefEdit doesn’t allow you to select one cell in an array and then use Shift + Cntl + Down (or Up) and/or Shift + Cntl +Right (or Left) to select really long ranges rather than having to drag down and/or across with the mouse.

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:16:15 +0000

Matt -

Relying on RefEdits can be tricky, but I’ve found that Detect and Repair makes most problems go away, and not only those related to the RefEdit.

Another thing I didn’t mention, but will be part of my ongoing Build an Excel Add-In series, is that running the add-in through an earlier version of Excel can also clean up a lot of problems. I keep a VM on hand with Office 2000. I load the add-in into Excel 2000, run Rob Bovey’s Code Cleaner (one of the handy add-ins from http://appspro.com/, and it’s free), then compile the code and save the add-in.

This is a good discussion. I think after more people have chimed in on their RefEdit experiences, I’ll rewrite this article with more details on symptoms and remedies.