Strange text box appeared on all worksheets, and always shows most recent typed data

Copper Contributor

An Excel file that I have used and updated for 5+ years, all of a sudden has this strange box, that I can not click on, but always shows the most recent typed data in it.  It is across all my worksheets in this book (11 tabs), and I can not figure what I did to create it.   I have tried to click, it and cannot.  See around cell K17 the "11/01/2021" it is there because I typed in the 11/1 in cell F3. 

Lisap5_0-1636410230285.png

If I open a separate sheet, there is that same date, but now column F

Lisap5_1-1636410318131.png

This is driving me crazy, I keeps getting in my way, as if I filter, it stays in that same spot, but the columns are changed.  It shrinks the data to fit in the cell, and looks like a jumbled mess.

Lisap5_2-1636410456753.png

Any suggestions!  Except to recreate the file?

 

4 Replies

@Lisap5 

 

I had the same thing happen to me today. I have had this spreadsheet for years.  The phantom box shows on each worksheet in the spreadsheet showing the last information entered. I agree it is very hard to work around.  I did do a recent Windows upgrade.

@txmontgdel 

Having the same issue.  Seems to have started when I added a note to a cell, then maybe clicked enter.  It is on all sheets and not selectable.

Found the answer on another site. For anyone else, close the program and reopen. The box should go away.

@Lisap5 closing the file and reopening it helped but I also realized that I had somehow changed the spreadsheet to a binary workbook file (.xlsb) so I resaved it as a regular workbook file (.xlsx) which fully resolved the issue.