If a Forms slider control is linked to a cell’s value, the user has to slide the bar on the control, then release it before the cell updates. Excel responds continuously to an ActiveX control. (Neither does VBA at all in fact, if you’re using MacOffice 2008.) Other Office applications also have appropriate selections of controls, though Excel has the widest selection.Įxcel responds to a Forms control after the user finishes interacting with it (i.e., unclicks). ActiveX controls do not work in MacExcel. ActiveX controls can only be used on worksheets. Forms controls can also be placed within embedded charts in Classic Excel (though not in Excel 2007). In Classic Excel and VBA, Forms and ActiveX controls are available on toolbars, while in Excel 2007, they’ve been moved to the Developer tab of the Ribbon.įorms controls can be used on worksheets and chart sheets. The ActiveX controls are actually more similar to the ActiveX controls available within VBA for use on UserForms. There are outward similarities, mostly in appearance, between Excel’s Forms controls and ActiveX controls. I’ve recently had problems with a buggy slider from the Forms toolbar, but I suspect the parent workbook was corrupt. Some advanced users have attributed buggy behavior to the ActiveX controls from the Controls Toolbox. Both can link to cells and ranges in the worksheet. Being newer, the ActiveX controls have richer formatting possibilities. The Forms controls aren’t very complicated, and they have been part of Excel for longer (I’m thinking Excel 4, and they were used in Excel 5/95’s dialog sheets) than the Controls Toolbox (Excel 97), so it stands to reason that they’d be more seamlessly integrated. There are two types of controls for use in Excel worksheets: Forms controls and ActiveX Controls.

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