The Excel Window Becomes Invisible And You Can not Click What is Behind It

March 23, 2018 - by Bill Jelen

A couple of times a week, one of my Excel windows becomes completely transparent. Is this happening to anyone else?

The first clue that I am having a problem: I will see something in Chrome and try to click on it. Chrome is completely unresponsive. Nothing that I click on will work. It happens as soon as I Alt + Tab from one Excel workbook to another.

But the problem has nothing to do with Chrome. The problem is that Excel is on top of Chrome. My mouse clicks aren't getting to Chrome because a completely transparent Excel window is on top of Chrome.

It took me a few months to discover that if I clicked on the Excel icon in the Windows 7 Taskbar, I would see one of the Excel tiles was completely transparent. Here is a normal view:

Here is the taskbar when the problem is happening. The tile on the right shows an invisible Excel screen.

I frequently use Excel, Camtasia, and InDesign. I have yet to figure out the combination that causes the problem. It is happening on two computers, one with Excel 2013 and one with Office 365. I've theorized that the problem is *me* - there must be some unsual shortcut key that I am using too frequently.

The solution? You need to force Excel to re-paint the window. Back in Excel 2010, the Excel Backstage was introduced when you clicked the File menu: "When you click File, you are no longer working in the document, so Microsoft will completely cover your Excel document with a full screen of choices." So - as soon as I realize that I have an invisible Excel window, I press Alt + F to open the File menu, then press Esc to close the File menu. The rogue Excel workbook becomes visible and I can work with it.

If this has been happening to you, let me know, particularly if you've figured out the steps to reproduce the error!

Every Friday, I examine a bug or other fishy behavior in Excel.

Title Photo: WikiImages / pixabay