Excel greys out all the options until I save

No.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but:

Everyone has to start somewhere.

snipped-for-privacy@f2s.com snipped-for-privacy@f2s.com wrote

Nope, you have f***ed up somehow.

Is it a security setting?

In my vetsion of Excel workbooks that originate on the internet open with a warning and an OK box to tick.

Did you close this warning without OKing?

In days of yore, Excel was fairly simple to use. Then in true MS fashion they changed everything and it got a lot more complicated and nearly impossible to use. Have you tried loading your spreadsheet into a freebie such as Open Office? You might find it easier.

If you got the file from someone else, it's possible they made it read-only. You would have to save it under a new name if you want to edit it (the original remains as a read-only file).

Well it depends what sort of spreadsheet it is and whether certain features are enabled.I never found spreadsheets very understandable myself, and remember this is Microsoft...ahem. The obvious is soon their software. Brian

My instant thought also

when you opened the document, did you get a yellow banner saying it was opened in read-only mode?

It is probably because you have opened a spreadsheet from inside an email and so it wants to save a local copy before you can alter anything.

Yep, the simplest of tasks now involves much skenninig, wading through menus and often an internet search.

There are no menus in excel now :-)

(part of what made it less easy to use IMHO)

You can check if you right click on the file, and select properties. If it has a flag marking it as "unsafe" it will say:

"Security: This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer."

If you see that, there is a check box beside it to "Unblock". Click that, then OK

Yup, if you just click on an attachment to open it, the mail software will normally save it as a temporary file to the system "temp" directory. Excel will normally spot that and get you to save it to a new location before you can edit it (since otherwise you will probably lose any changes you make!)

TBH, there is very little to choose between Excel, OpenOffice or Google sheets these days.

Very similar to use, and a largely similar and compatible list of functions and features.

(At least until you start getting into very techie stuff like writing custom macros and scripts).

Actually they do persist in the cache for a while afterwards and if you are careful or careless you can sometimes end up with a saved edited document lurking in the email client temporary storage cache.

ALways worth a look there if someone has worked on and lost a document!

I have Office Pro 365. I use Excel every day on a PC and a MacBook. Excel has menus.

I have not seen excel with menus since 2007...

(the tabbed button bar thing is not a menu!)

On windows at least, it does not routinely clear the %temp% folder unless you manually do a disk cleanup (or the new storage menu in Settings on Win >= 10) - so all manner of crap tends to lurk their - sometimes for years!

I'd say that anything which produces various options when clicked is a menu!

Here's what it looks like (SFW):