Thanks kirk- did you mean an excel p-list file? inside my user folder, library folder, then in the preference folder? Never did it and needed to check first... thanks jake Look for an Excel preferences file; drag it to the desktop, then relaunch Excel. That might fix it. Kirk having trouble with the excel formatting pallette disappearing beyod my reach.... __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail