Error message text when renaming a sheet in Excel

Question

Hi there,

I am using Office 2016 Insider Slow (Version 1702 Build 7870.2020) and I noticed following behaviour in Excel when renaming a sheet.

When using Excel and renaming a worksheet, some characters such as *, /, [ or ] are not allowed. Excel just bypasses them when entering them at any place into the sheet name. For example, if the sheet name is ABC, and you try to rename the sheet to *ABC, A*BC or ABC*, then * is not accepted (you will not see the * while entering it) and the sheet name remains ABC.

Single quotes in sheet names are a special case. They are not allowed to be used as first or as last character in a sheet name. For example, 'ABC or ABC' are not allowed but A'B'C is.

If you try to rename your sheet including a single quote as first character, then the same mechanism as described above applies and the single quote is not displayed in the sheet name field. If you enter the single quote at the end of the sheet name and you press Enter, an error message is displayed. You can expand this error message by clicking on Show help >> and display a help topic in it. Please see the attached screenshot. 

The first paragraph of the help text only mentions the case, when a file has been imported. I think, the help text should take into account the case, when I am renaming the sheet manually. Additionally, when I click on the button to open the help contents in the Help Window, nothing is displayed. I think, this is a similar issue to this one.

Best,

Mourad

Answer 1

Hello Anneliese,

thanks, as always :-)

Best,

Mourad

Answer 2

Hello again, Mourad:

I have confirmed that plans are in place to do the following:

1. Update the Rename a worksheettopic per your suggestion
2. Investigate solutions for fixing the "empty Help window" problem

Thanks again!

Answer 3

Hi Anneliese :-)

thanks, I am well, hope for you all is going fine too :-)

Best,

Mourad

Answer 4

Hi there, Mourad -

Catching good issues as usual, I see. :-)

I will pass this on for investigation.

Hope you are doing well!