Disappearing Add-Ins Ribbon

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A number of people have reported that the Real Statistics software “disappears” from time to time. The following describes what to do when this happens.

First of all, the software doesn’t actually disappear. What disappears is access to the data analysis tools via the Add-Ins ribbon. In fact the Add-Ins ribbon disappears. You can still access all the Real Statistics functions and you can access all the data analysis tools by pressing Ctrl-m.

The disappearance of the Add-Ins ribbon seems to be an Excel 2013 problem, and a weird problem at that, which is related to the sequence that Excel uses in activating add-ins. I will try to address the issue of the disappearance of the Add-Ins ribbon in the next release of the software, but for now if this happens, I suggest that you do the following:

(1) Press Alt-TI and unclick the add-in and click on the OK button.
(2) Close Excel and reopen Excel (I am not sure whether this step is necessary).
(3) Press Alt-TI, click on the Analysis ToolPak add-in and click on the OK button.

The key issue is that for some strange reason, the Analysis ToolPak add-in must be activated last (after the activation of the Real Statistics software or any other add-in).

Please let me know if you are still having problems with the Add-Ins ribbon access after applying this approach.

Charles

8 thoughts on “Disappearing Add-Ins Ribbon”

  1. THANKS CHARLES, THE SOLUTION SO THAT THEY DO NOT DISAPPEAR REAL STATISTICS, IT IS EFFECTIVELY DISABLING THE ANALYSIS TOOLS, THEN INSTALLING REAL STATISTICS, EXITING AND ENTERING EXCEL AGAIN, FINALLY ACTIVATING THE ANALYSIS TOOLS AGAIN.

  2. Hello,

    I noticed the same problem you’ve described in this post occurring with MS Excel 2016 (64bit) running in Windows 10 Pro (build 1607).

    Your solution of: [1] adding RealStats add-in first, [2] then closing/restarting Excel, [3] then adding the Analysis ToolPak & Analysis ToolPak-VBA appears to have worked for me as well in Excel 2016 (64bit).

    While adding the other MS Excel-supplied add-ins however, I noticed that in Excel 2016 (64bit) there seems to be an incompatibility between RealStats (already added) that happens when I go back and add the Solver Add-In…it causes Excel 2016 to stop working and I have to close it and MS help searches for but does not find a solution.

    So, at this point I am unable to use the Solver Add-In where I have the RealStats add-in activated.

    Maybe that is something worth you looking into and that could be resolved so that users can activate and use both RealStats and the Solver Add-In.

    Regards,
    Dale

    • Dale,
      I am a bit confused about a few points that you have raised.
      1. I had understood that the Real Statistics add-in would not work at all unless Solver was active. Are you able to get the Real Statistics add-in to work when Solver is deactivated?
      2. I had understood that the Real Statistics add-in does not work with 64 bit Excel (it does work with 64 bit Windows though). Are you using 64 bit Excel or 64 bit Windows?
      Charles

  4. Hi Charles,

    I have a student who is using Windows Excel 2013 and cannot see the add in’s ribbon after downloading and selecting the add-in ‘RealStats’ under options, add ins. She has tried Ctrl-m and RealStats still does not come up. Do you know what might be the problem?

    Thank you for your time
    Steph

    • Steph,

      The only reasons I can think of for not being able to access RealStats when pressing Ctrl-m are as follows:
      1. The software has not been installed properly. To see whether this is the case, press the Alt-TI key combination and see whether Solver and RealStats both appear in the list of addins with a check mark next to them.
      2. You are using some other Excel addin which makes use of Ctrl-m.

      One question for you, what do you see when you enter =VER() into any cell in a new Excel workbook?

      Charles

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