XL2000: The Cell Disappears When You Edit Text in the Cell

When you double-click a cell to edit text in the cell, the formula bar expands to display the text, and the cell that you are editing is hidden by the text in the formula bar.

This problem can occur when you double-click a cell that contains a large amount of text. The text is hidden behind the expanded formula bar. Note that the cell contents appear in the formula bar, which expands to display all the text in the cell.

To work around this problem, use either of the following methods.

Method 1

Click the formula bar to display the insertion point. Edit the text in the formula bar.

Method 2

Turn off the formula bar to prevent the cell from being hidden. To do this, click to clear the Formula Bar check box on the View menu.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

In Microsoft Excel 2000, the maximum number of characters that you can type in a single cell is 32,767. In versions of Excel earlier than Excel 97, the limit is 255.

The formula bar can display the entire contents of a single cell by expanding downward into the worksheet. The greater the number of characters in the cell, the more the formula bar must expand to display the cell contents. Note that the formula bar can overlap and hide portions of the worksheet if there are a lot of characters in the cell.

For more information about editing cell contents, click Microsoft Microsoft Excel Help on the Help menu, type edit cell contents in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.