Fix: Name Manager Delete Option Greyed Out on Excel

Is the name manager delete option greyed out on Microsoft Excel?

Microsoft Excel is one of the best tools you can use to organize, process, and analyze complex data. With Microsoft Excel, you can manage employee payrolls, monitor inventories, and do other things you could think of. 

In Excel, there’s a function called ‘name manager’. This feature is a dialog box that allows users to create, edit, and delete defined names in their worksheets. These names can be named formulas, constants, and ranges. 

Using named ranges, we can make formulas easier to comprehend and maintain. This also provides a simple navigation to your workbook. 

Unfortunately, there have been reports that the name manager delete option is not available or greyed out on Microsoft Excel. While this issue can be due to varied reasons, it is quite common and should be easy to troubleshoot. 

To help you out, we’ve listed the best workarounds for fixing the name manager delete option if it’s greyed out on Microsoft Excel. 

Let’s get right into it!

1. Restart Your Computer. 

Before changing anything on Excel or your computer, we recommend restarting your system first to reload your resources. This should clear your device’s memory and cache and eliminate temporary bugs and glitches. 

Check out the steps below to restart your PC: 

  1. First, press the Windows key on your keyboard to open the Start Menu
  2. After that, access the Power Options tab. 
  3. Lastly, choose Restart and wait for your system to reboot. 
Restart your PC

Go back to Microsoft Excel and check if the problem is solved. 

2. Disable Protection. 

As with most other features on Microsoft Excel, the name manager delete option will be disabled if protection is active on your worksheet. If you can’t use this option, make sure that protection is disabled on your file. 

Here’s what you need to do: 

  1. Launch Microsoft Excel on your computer and open the file.
  2. Next, click on the Review tab in the navigation bar. 
  3. Finally, click on Unprotect Sheet and Unprotect Workbook
Protect Workbook

Relaunch Excel afterward and see if the name manager delete option is available. 

3. Covert Table to Range.

Tables in Microsoft Excel allow for rapid and convenient reading of data presented in rows and columns. While creating a table, Excel automatically formats it. If your data is converted as a table, the name manager delete option will be greyed out. 

To fix this, we recommend converting your table to range:

  1. First, highlight or select the table in your spreadsheet. 
  2. After that, go to the Table Design tab in the toolbar and click the Convert to Range option under the Tools option. 
name manager delete option greyed out on excel
  1. Lastly, YES in the dialog box to confirm. 

Once done, you can now name your range table by going to Formulas > Create from Selection. 

4. Check Advanced Settings. 

If you’ve recently played around with Excel’s advanced settings, some of your configurations might have caused the name manager delete option to be greyed out. If this is the case, see the guide below to tweak your configurations:

  1. In Microsoft Excel, click on the File tab and choose Options
  2. Now, go to the Advanced tab. 
  3. Look for the Display Options for this Workbook and change the For Objects Show tab to All. Hit OK to save the changes. 
name manager delete option greyed out on excel

Go back to Microsoft Excel afterward and check if the problem is solved. 

5. Update Microsoft Excel. 

At this point, the last thing we can recommend is update Microsoft Excel. The version you are running might have an issue that causes the name manager delete option to be greyed out. 

Here’s how you can update Microsoft Excel: 

  1. First, open Microsoft Excel and access the File tab. 
  2. Now, go to Accounts
  3. Lastly, click on Update Options and choose Update Now or Enable Updates
name manager delete option greyed out on excel

Once done, go back to your worksheet and check if the problem is solved. 

That sums up our guide for fixing the name manager delete option if it’s greyed out on Microsoft Excel. If you have questions or other concerns, please drop a comment below, and we’ll do our best to answer them. 

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂

Author

  • John Sixto

    John is a staff writer at Saint and comes from a SAP ABAP development background. He has a Bachelors in IT and has been writing since 2018, with over 500 posts published. He loves to build PCs and has a deep curiosity in understanding how different components and configurations work. John spends hundreds of hours at a time, researching and testing the software and apps, before he proceeds to write about it. LinkedIn X (Twitter)

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