Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.

bring up the windows task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
remove msohelp both of them. Then bring up Excel

Usually seems to happen if you brought up Excel using a web browser.
during your current windows session.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"J Seay in Tennessee" <J Seay in wrote in message
...
Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.

I did as you said. Brought up task manager, there was no msohelp. I did a
search of my hard drive for msohelp and found 2 files - msohelp.chm and
msohelp.exe. Deleted both of those. Brought up Excel. Opened the Help
screen and got the two-headed horizontal arrow again.

J. Seay in Tennessee

"David McRitchie" wrote:

bring up the windows task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
remove msohelp both of them. Then bring up Excel

Usually seems to happen if you brought up Excel using a web browser.
during your current windows session.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"J Seay in Tennessee" <J Seay in wrote in message
...
Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.

I hope you can restore what you deleted from your recycle bin, or rename
files that you rename instead of delete when you have a problem with something.

Please tell me they are available. Otherwise you will have to reinstall
Excel over the top of the existing same version so that it copies in
missing file..

The task manager lists running programs, the .middle tab is
Processes, and you should use the "end process" key to terminate the item.
So that wasn't your problem. Though, I think, missing help files would
cause the same problem.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"J Seay in Tennessee" wrote in message
...
I did as you said. Brought up task manager, there was no msohelp. I did a
search of my hard drive for msohelp and found 2 files - msohelp.chm and
msohelp.exe. Deleted both of those. Brought up Excel. Opened the Help
screen and got the two-headed horizontal arrow again.

J. Seay in Tennessee

"David McRitchie" wrote:

bring up the windows task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
remove msohelp both of them. Then bring up Excel

Usually seems to happen if you brought up Excel using a web browser.
during your current windows session.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"J Seay in Tennessee" <J Seay in wrote in message
...
Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.

Reinstalling the files was absolutely no problem. They are in place as they
should be. Thinking back, I remember this problem arising after I downloaded
some updates from Microsoft's site. Unfortunately, those updates are not
able to be uninstalled and even if they were, I can't remember which one was
installed right before the problem occurred.

I did end process but only after I had brought up Excel and opened the Help
window. Msohelp did not appear until then. That did not help either, but I
appreciate you taking the time to help.

J Seay in Tennessee

"David McRitchie" wrote:

I hope you can restore what you deleted from your recycle bin, or rename
files that you rename instead of delete when you have a problem with something.

Please tell me they are available. Otherwise you will have to reinstall
Excel over the top of the existing same version so that it copies in
missing file..

The task manager lists running programs, the .middle tab is
Processes, and you should use the "end process" key to terminate the item.
So that wasn't your problem. Though, I think, missing help files would
cause the same problem.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"J Seay in Tennessee" wrote in message
...
I did as you said. Brought up task manager, there was no msohelp. I did a
search of my hard drive for msohelp and found 2 files - msohelp.chm and
msohelp.exe. Deleted both of those. Brought up Excel. Opened the Help
screen and got the two-headed horizontal arrow again.

J. Seay in Tennessee

"David McRitchie" wrote:

bring up the windows task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
remove msohelp both of them. Then bring up Excel

Usually seems to happen if you brought up Excel using a web browser.
during your current windows session.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"J Seay in Tennessee" <J Seay in wrote in message
...
Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.

What seems to happen is the msohelp.exe stays running even though
Excel is down, then when you bring up Excel and help you get tso of the guys.

Do you by any chance have the office assistant turned on (pesky animations for help)
OFF2000: Help Does Not Appear When Clicking Help Topic
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q239913/

---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"J Seay in Tennessee" wrote in message
...
Reinstalling the files was absolutely no problem. They are in place as they
should be. Thinking back, I remember this problem arising after I downloaded
some updates from Microsoft's site. Unfortunately, those updates are not
able to be uninstalled and even if they were, I can't remember which one was
installed right before the problem occurred.

I did end process but only after I had brought up Excel and opened the Help
window. Msohelp did not appear until then. That did not help either, but I
appreciate you taking the time to help.

J Seay in Tennessee

"David McRitchie" wrote:

I hope you can restore what you deleted from your recycle bin, or rename
files that you rename instead of delete when you have a problem with something.

Please tell me they are available. Otherwise you will have to reinstall
Excel over the top of the existing same version so that it copies in
missing file..

The task manager lists running programs, the .middle tab is
Processes, and you should use the "end process" key to terminate the item.
So that wasn't your problem. Though, I think, missing help files would
cause the same problem.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"J Seay in Tennessee" wrote in message
...
I did as you said. Brought up task manager, there was no msohelp. I did a
search of my hard drive for msohelp and found 2 files - msohelp.chm and
msohelp.exe. Deleted both of those. Brought up Excel. Opened the Help
screen and got the two-headed horizontal arrow again.

J. Seay in Tennessee

"David McRitchie" wrote:

bring up the windows task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
remove msohelp both of them. Then bring up Excel

Usually seems to happen if you brought up Excel using a web browser.
during your current windows session.

HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"J Seay in Tennessee" <J Seay in wrote in message
...
Whenever I activate the Help screen, the cursor turns into a two-headed
horizontal arrow cursor in the active part of the screen. I can't enter
anything into the text boxes because the normal cursor, the vertical place
holder, does not appear. Whenever I move the cursor out of the active part
of the Help screen, the cursor becomes normal and I can manipulate the tabs.