Microsoft KB Archive/160903

= Cannot Enable or Disable Built-in Commands with a Macro =

Article ID: 160903

Article Last Modified on 10/11/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 95 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 5.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 98 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q160903



SYMPTOMS
When you run a macro that attempts to set the Enabled property for a built-in menu command or a submenu command, you receive an error message.

In Microsoft Excel 97 and Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, you receive the following error message:

Run-time error '1004':

Application-defined or object-defined error

In Microsoft Excel 5.0 and 7.0, you receive the following error message:

Run-time error '1005':

Cannot enable built-in commands.



CAUSE
In Microsoft Excel, you cannot enable or disable built-in menu commands and submenu commands. You can only set the Enabled property for a menu command that you add to a menu.



RESOLUTION
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.

Simulating Disabling a Built-in Menu Command
You cannot enable or disable a built-in menu command. However, you can create a macro that gives a built-in menu command the appearance of being disabled.

The sample macro in this article makes the built-in Exit menu command on the File menu appear disabled. This macro performs the following steps:
 * 1) The built-in menu command location is saved.
 * 2) The built-in menu command is deleted.
 * 3) A custom menu command with the same caption and index is added to the menu.
 * 4) The custom menu command is disabled.

Sample Macro
Sub Disable_Builtin_MenuItem

Dim i      Dim x

'If you are using Microsoft Excel on the Macintosh replace 'the word "Exit" with "Quit" on the following line With MenuBars(xlWorksheet).Menus("File").MenuItems("Exit") i = .Index    'Save the position of the built-in menu command. .Delete       'Delete the built-in menu command. End With

'Add a custom menu command with the same caption and index as the 'built-in menu command that you deleted. Set x = MenuBars(xlWorksheet).Menus("File").MenuItems.Add _ (Caption:="Exit", before:=i) x.Enabled = False

End Sub

Resetting the Menu That Is Changed by the Sample Macro
To reset the entire menu to the default values, run the following macro: Sub ResetMenubar MenuBars(xlWorksheet).Reset End Sub NOTE: There is not a way to reset a single menu or menu command.

