screen becomes disabled in excel for mac 2011

[kylefoley76]

this problem is somewhat hard to describe so I made a video of what happens:

problem with excel - YouTube

as you watch the video notice that when I input something into a cell, excel will become disabled or grey and i have to click the cell again in order to keep inputting. i have had this problem ever since i got excel back in 2011 and have not yet succeeded in fixing it. every year i make an effort maybe this time is the charm. the bug seems to crop after i run a certain macro but i have never been able to find a pattern to it. the only way to get around the bug is to quit excel and restart. i'm pretty sure this problem is exclusive to excel for mac 2011

 

[mole999]

post the suspect macro between code tags

 

[kylefoley76]

Sub number_claims()


Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, last_cell_was_blank As Boolean
Dim str1 As String


Range("c2").Select


last_cell_was_blank = True
i = 1
j = -1
Do
    i = i + 1
    str1 = Range("c" & i).Value
    If str1 <> "" Then
        If last_cell_was_blank = True Then
            If InStr(str1, "*") = 0 Then
                last_cell_was_blank = False
                j = j + 1
                Range("b" & i).Value = j
            Else:
                last_cell_was_blank = False
            End If
        End If
    Else
        If last_cell_was_blank = True Then
            Range("c" & i).Select
            Exit Do
        Else
            last_cell_was_blank = True
        End If
    End If
Loop


Dim num As Integer


i = 1
Do
    i = i + 1
    str1 = Range("c" & i).Value
    If Range("b" & i).Value <> "" Then
        num = Range("b" & i).Value
    ElseIf Mid(str1, 1, 1) = "*" Then
        j = i
        Do
            j = j + 1
        Loop Until Range("b" & j).Value <> ""
        num = Range("b" & j).Value
    End If
    
    Range("a" & i).Value = num
Loop Until Range("c" & i).Value = "" And Range("c" & i + 1).Value = ""


End Sub

 

[mole999]

I was partly expecting to see an application.screenupdating = false without application.screenupdating = true to give you control back at the end of the macro. If that exists elsewhere and your code fails before the end and isn't error trapped then potentially the system appears hung

 

[kylefoley76]

I thought that might be the problem too. So I ran a macro with screenupdating = False and I put a bug in it so that it will stop, but that does not reproduce the error.

 

[kylefoley76]

Actually, it turned out that the bug was not replicated on one workbook but it was on another. I then ran a macro which used screenupdating and that set things back to normal. So it seems that this 5 year quest to end this problem might be solved.