Get the Scroll Bar Back in Excel

Go to File → Options → Advanced, scroll to Display options for this workbook, tick Show horizontal scroll bar and Show vertical scroll bar, and click OK. The setting is saved with each workbook, so a file someone sends you can open without scroll bars.

If both boxes are ticked but the horizontal bar is missing, the sheet tabs are covering it. Drag the three-dot divider at the right end of the tabs back to the left. If neither bar shows, the Excel window may extend past the edge of the screen; double-click the title bar or use View → Arrange All to fit it.

If the scroll box is tiny and dragging it takes you far past your data, Excel thinks the sheet is bigger than it is. Delete the empty rows and columns below and to the right of your data, then save the file to reset the used range.

In VBA, ActiveWindow.DisplayHorizontalScrollBar = True and ActiveWindow.DisplayVerticalScrollBar = True bring both bars back for the active workbook.

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Show Scroll Bar(s) Back from the Excel Options

Using a VBA Code to Show Scroll Bar

Show Scroll Bar(s) Back from the Excel Options

Use the below steps:

Go to the File Tab.
Open the Excel Options.
Click on the Advanced tab.
Scroll Down and tick mark both checkboxes.
Click Ok to save.

The moment you click OK, you get both scroll bars back.

Hiding or showing a scroll bar is a workbook-level setting. When you hide a scroll bar, Excel only changes the current (active) workbook.

Using a VBA Code to Show Scroll Bar

You can also use a VBA code to show a scroll bar in the Excel window.

Sub ScrollBarOn()
    With ActiveWindow
        .DisplayHorizontalScrollBar = True
        .DisplayVerticalScrollBar = True
    End With
End Sub

Go to the Developer Tab.
Open Visual Basic Editor.
Insert a Module.
Paste the code and then run it.

And if you want to hide it back, use the following code.

Sub ScrollBarOff()
    With ActiveWindow
        .DisplayHorizontalScrollBar = False
        .DisplayVerticalScrollBar = False
    End With
End Sub

Written by

Puneet Gogia

Microsoft MVP — Excel · Founder, Excel Champs

Twelve years of teaching Excel, and a decade before that using it as a data analyst. Every tutorial here is written from a file I actually built.

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Show Scroll Bar(s) Back from the Excel Options

Using a VBA Code to Show Scroll Bar

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