Microsoft Knowledge Base

• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
• Microsoft Excel for Windows NT, version 5.0
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, version 5.0, 5.0a
• Microsoft Excel for the Power Macintosh, versions 5.0, 5.0a

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel, if the Patterns dialog box is called by a Visual Basic, Applications Edition, macro or by an Excel 4.0 Macro, the drop-down list may display a white area instead of patterns. In Microsoft Excel for Windows or in Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, if you click the white area, you may receive a general protection (GP) fault or an invalid page error.

CAUSE

This problem occurs if screen updating is disabled before you call the Patterns dialog box. For example, this problem occurs with the following subroutine:

   Sub Display_Patterns
      Application.ScreenUpdating=False
      Application.Dialogs(xlDialogPatterns).Show
   End Sub

   Display_Patterns
   =ECHO(False)
   =PATTERNS?()
   =RETURN()

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use the appropriate command below to enable screen updating before you call the Patterns dialog box.

• In Visual Basic for Applications, set ScreenUpdating to TRUE:

        Application.ScreenUpdating = TRUE
  

• In the Microsoft Excel 4.0 Macro language, set the ECHO function to TRUE:

        =ECHO(TRUE)
  

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.