One of the users of an Excel program I've written is having a weird problem. None of the control objects (Command Button, ComboBox, etc.) are visible to him when he opens the file on his laptop. He is using Excel 2003, the same version I used to create the program, and enables macros using the pop-up when the file loads.

I have Googled this, and have found these people who seem to be having the exact same problem, with various versions of Excel. Unfortunately, none of their questions were answered.

I can't really explain it any better than this user:

If I enter design mode and pull a control from the control toolbar onto a sheet all I see are the drag handles. When not in design mode I have to feel around with the mouse and can click the button which executes the button click code correctly and opens another sheet where again I have to feel around for the buttons to return me to the original sheet. The button I managed to click is now visible but as soon as I click anywhere on the sheet it disappears.

I have verified that the visible property of the buttons is set and that the Show All Objects on the Options View tab is selected.

If I pull buttons from the Forms toolbar onto a sheet they are visible. If I try to find Objects using F5 when not in design mode Excel reports no objects on the sheet.

So, Super Users, can you help?

UPDATE: Thanks for your replies, but much like the person in the ozgrid link, the problem has gone away. Not sure why it went, but I can confirm that the user rebooted again and also started up other Excel files that didn't contain controls in the interim. Perhaps that fixed it, or maybe it'll be back again. I'll keep udating with progress, and close if the problem doesn't reoccur for the next few days. Thanks again.