Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Problem with Missing Context Menu Option.
Rita has encountered a situation at her workplace that has her scratching her head. They have an employee who can right-click on any cell and the Format Cells option is not available on the resulting Context menu. Rita is wondering what is necessary to get the Context menu option back.
It is possible that the Context menu that is displayed when you right-click on a cell has, over time, become modified in some way. You can reset this particular Context menu by using a very simple macro:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: 
Sub ResetContextMenu()
CommandBars("Cell").Reset
End Sub
If this does not do the trick, or if the menu inexplicably changes at some future point, the culprit could very well be some sort of add-in or a particular macro in a workbook. Determining which of the macros is doing the modification can take some serious detective work. If you can access the macros in the add-in or workbook, you might want to just search through the VBA code to see if you can find the text "CommandBars" to see what is being changed.
If you cannot access the macro code (perhaps the add-in or workbook is protected), then you will need to go through a trial-and-error process where you stop the loading of the add-ins, one by one, until you determine which one causes a change in the Context menu.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3452) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Problem with Missing Context Menu Option.
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