Finder menu opens when I right-click on an Excel tab

Question

When I right-click on a sheet tab in Excel that is off-center, the normal menu appears (first pic) allowing me to insert another sheet, delete the current one, rename it, etc. But when I right-click a sheet tab that is located in the center, the normal tab menu doesn't appear; instead, at the top-center of the screen, a small Finder menu appears (second pic). I don't know why this is and would greatly appreciate any insight. It's really inconvenient to have to move a tab to the left (off-center) just to bring up the tab menu for it. 

Normal right-click that opens the tab menu:

Finder menu that appears when right-clicking a tab located in the center

Answer 1

The problem only occurs when I am in Full Screen mode in Excel. 

When it's not in Full Screen, I can right-click on any sheet tab, no matter where they're located along the bottom, and never see that mini Finder menu appear.

That bit of information makes all the difference in the world. I have been able to reproduce the issue in v16.39 running on macOS 10.14.6, so it doesn't seem to be OS, version specific, user specific... It's a bug. In Full Screen View the tabs directly beneath the filename are affected as you've described.

This is something which needs to be addressed at the developer level. Please use the icon at the extreme right end of a wkbk window title bar to report the issue. Include a reference to this conversation as well. I'll report it from this end, too.

Answer 2

I don't know what you mean by off-center as opposed to "located in the center" but your second screen shot clearly indicates that you've right-clicked the file name in the title bar of the document window, rather than a sheet tab.

Answer 3

I don't know what you mean by off-center as opposed to "located in the center" but your second screen shot clearly indicates that you've right-clicked the file name in the title bar of the document window, rather than a sheet tab.

Hi,

Thank you for replying to my question. By "off-center", I mean the tabs located along the bottom of the spreadsheet but towards the left or right end. So, if you had an excel file that had 12 sheets, you'd have 12 tabs running along the bottom of your screen and perhaps tab #8, or 9 would line up near the bottom-center of your screen. I'm on a Macbook 12" maybe it would be tabs #11 or 12 if you're on something bigger. Does this make sense?

The cursor disappears when taking a screenshot so I can see why you'd think that, but I can say with 100% certainty that I did not click the file name in the title bar. My cursor was on the "Coding" tab that you see in the 2nd picture, located at the bottom of my screen. When I right-clicked on the tab at the bottom, a menu appeared at the top.

Here are screenshots of me right-clicking on tabs at the bottom-left/bottom-right versus right-clicking on a tab near the bottom-center.

Answer 4

This is extremely uncommon - In fact, I've neither encountered nor even seen it referred to before. I certainly can't reproduce it here & am hard pressed to determine a cause. It suggests some sort of fault at the system level.

If you haven't already done so the first thing I'd suggest is to simply Restart your Mac to see whether the issue persists. If that doesn't rectify it there are 2 other troubleshooting diagnostics to perform:

• Create a new User Account on the Mac to see whether the behavior occurs when logged in as that user.
• Power up the Mac in Safe Mode to see whether the behavior continues.

When you reply with your results please include the specific Version information from Excel> About Microsoft Excel in the main menu as well as your version of macOS.

Answer 5

Hi LeeyaD,

Hope you are doing well.

May I know if you have tried the suggestion shared by Bob? If the issue persists, would you mind sharing a screenshot of your Excel version with us? Also, have you experienced any similar behavior in other applications?

Thanks,

Ray