XL2000: Problems Disabling and Enabling Shortcut Menus

In Microsoft Excel, when you run a Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macro that attempts to enable or disable shortcut menus, the shortcut menus may not be enabled/disabled and you do not receive an error message.

This will occur if you attempt to enable or disable shortcut menus by using the ShortcutMenus method in a Visual Basic for Applications macro. For example:

   Sub DisableShortcutMenu()

       'This does not work in Microsoft Excel 97 or later.
       Application.ShortcutMenus(xlWorksheetCell).Enabled = False

   End Sub
				

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel.

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements. If you want a macro to disable shortcut menus in Microsoft Excel, you must use the CommandBars method. For example:

   Sub DisableShortcutMenu()
       CommandBars("Cell").Enabled = False
   End Sub
				

To re-enable a shortcut menu, set its Enabled property to True:

   Sub EnableShortcutMenu()
       CommandBars("Cell").Enabled = True
   End Sub
				

In Microsoft Excel, whenever you right-click any type of object within a worksheet, chart sheet, or dialog sheet, a shortcut menu appears with menu items that apply to the object you clicked.

In Microsoft Excel 97 or later, shortcut menus no longer belong to their own collection of objects (ShortcutMenus). They are now part of the CommandBars collection, which also includes menubars and toolbars.

To prevent compatibility problems with Visual Basic for Applications macros created in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, the ShortcutMenus method still works in many cases: for example, you can use the ShortcutMenus method to add and delete menu items on shortcut menus.

However, you cannot use the ShortcutMenus method to enable or disable a shortcut menu in Microsoft Excel 97 or later. Instead, you must use the CommandBars method, as shown in the "Workaround" section.