Funny. When I wrote "greyed out" in the title, it occured to me that Americans don't spell it that way. In the interest of your search engine of choice finding this page, I've written both spellings. Being Canadian, however, I am inclined to write "grey".
Anyway, on to the point of this post: why on earth would the Custom Views button be greyed out?!
The answer to this question might seem very bizarre to you, but the reason why you are unable to access the 'Custom Views' button is because you have used Excel Tables somewhere in your workbook.
That's right. If you've used one or more Excel Tables anywhere in your workbook, you will find that you won't be able to use the Custom Views anymore. I won't lie, I think this is an unfortunate bit of functionality (or non-functionality) but... if you absolutely must use Custom Views, you're going to have to either remove those Excel Tables and convert them to regular ranges, or use some VBA coding to create your own Custom Views.
I know, it's not the best news I could deliver. At least you know why that button's greyed out, though!
Anyway, on to the point of this post: why on earth would the Custom Views button be greyed out?!
The answer to this question might seem very bizarre to you, but the reason why you are unable to access the 'Custom Views' button is because you have used Excel Tables somewhere in your workbook.
That's right. If you've used one or more Excel Tables anywhere in your workbook, you will find that you won't be able to use the Custom Views anymore. I won't lie, I think this is an unfortunate bit of functionality (or non-functionality) but... if you absolutely must use Custom Views, you're going to have to either remove those Excel Tables and convert them to regular ranges, or use some VBA coding to create your own Custom Views.
I know, it's not the best news I could deliver. At least you know why that button's greyed out, though!
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Version 2010, you say? Isn't that 10 years after the turn of the century? And 25 years after Excel was first released? Thank you Microsoft for getting it right again!
ReplyDeleteHahaha. I like this comment.
ReplyDeleteSomeday I'd like to talk to someone at Microsoft about this. I'm convinced there's a really good reason as to why these two features don't seem to work together.
Thanks for the answer :-)
ReplyDeleteAs ever, what Microsoft gives with one hand it takes away with the other.
i dont believe it!. i removed pivot table and now custom view is no longer greyed out. Kinda of silly for Microsoft mess this up, since both features work find together in previous version. Thanks Stacy otherwise i will never figure out why.
ReplyDelete"Microsoft gives with one hand it takes away with the other" totally! Tables are the greatest feature since the invention of the spread sheet, yet what I totally want "views" for is to go back and forth with hidden "fields", sorting, filtering, etc. In fact, why does this web site: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/create-apply-or-delete-a-custom-view-HP010342377.aspx#BMcreatecustomview
ReplyDeletesay "You can use a custom view to save specific display settings (such as column widths, row heights, hidden rows and columns, cell selections, filter settings, and window settings..." Wait, *filter settings*? I thought filters were something that exists with tables and yet with a table, views are not possible. Am I wrong or is someone smoking the wacky tabbacky?
I have been having troubles with my Custom views disappearing, so I searched this thread to look for answers. I have many pivot table worksheets in my workbooks and have had no problems until recently. I opened a spreadsheet with Pivot Tables in it, refreshed it, no problem. Custom Views are still available. THEN, I double clicked in the pivot table to see the details that created the summary results and VIOLA! the custom views disappeared. Hope this helps.
ReplyDeleteI had a sheet with a table refreshed from sql server. once i moved this to another excel file the fuctionality returned.
ReplyDeletethanks very much. this was very useful.
ReplyDeleteIt has been 15 yeaes. The year is 2021. There is still not a feature, in which you would be able to hide columns in multiple view if you have tables :)
ReplyDeleteWeird, eh?!
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