How to Fix a Faded MS Office Menu

1. Click 'Save' on your document. Sometimes this is all that is needed to move your cursor from a place (such as editing a cell in Excel) that blocks certain menu commands. If 'Save' is one of the faded items, click anywhere in the document to move your cursor from its current position.
2. Examine the title bar at the top of your Office program window. This will tell you the title of the document as well as the program and other information. If the title bar contains the words 'Read Only,' you can save the file under a different name to allow access to the toolbar items. In this case, click 'File,' 'Save as,' change the file name, and then click 'Save.' Close the document, and then re-open your renamed document. Your menus should be available as normal.
3. Click 'File,' then 'Info' if your grayed out menus are in Word. Select 'Protect document' under 'Permissions.' Click 'Restrict editing,' and then click 'Stop protection' and deselect any boxes that restrict specific types of editing. Close the menu by clicking the 'X' in the upper-right corner. This also works for read-only files. You may need to type in a password if one was set to protect the document.
4. Click 'Format' on the 'Home' tab if your grayed menus are in Excel. If 'Unprotect sheet' is an option, click this. Enter the password to unprotect the sheet, if required.
5. Check your menu tab to ensure you are in the correct menu. One common misconception in Word is that the alignment features are grayed out, making it impossible to center or make other changes to your text alignment. This is only true if you are trying to use the 'Align' function under 'Arrange' in the 'Page Layout' tab. Click the 'Home' tab instead and position your cursor on the line you want to center. Click the center paragraph icon in the 'Paragraph' section, or click the popout arrow next to 'Paragraph' and select 'Center' from the drop-down menu next to 'Alignment.'