title: Why does Formula Auditing | Trace function becomedisabled
body: <p>TL;DR: <strong>Why/How does a workbook suddenly have Trace Auditing disabled (not protected)? What causes Excel to activate this behavior?</strong></p>
  
  <p>I was working on an Excel spreadsheet that I had created a while back and wanted to use the Formula Auditing "Trace Precedent" functionality. To my surprise it was grayed out. Everything else worked fine except that feature. Neither the workbook nor the worksheet were protected.</p>
  
  <p>Searching the web I was able to quickly find a solution: </p>
  
  <pre><code>File Menu&gt;Options&gt;Advanced&gt;Display Options for this workbook&gt;For Objects shown: select **"all"**
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to know how to prevent this from popping up as an issue for employees who use my templates. Or what triggers it. I certainly didn't set this option in Excel on purpose.</p>