The parentheses in a formula appear in bold formatting when you use the arrow keys to move the cursor through a formula in Excel 2003

Consider the following scenario. You are editing a formula in the formula bar or in a cell in Microsoft Office Excel 2003. You use the arrow keys to move the cursor past the opening parenthesis or past the closing parenthesis of a matching pair of parentheses. In this scenario, the parentheses in the formula appear in bold formatting. Additionally, the cursor disappears for approximately one second.

Note This problem may cause a screen reader to lose track of the cursor.

This problem was first fixed in a hotfix that is now contained in a service pack. If you installed the latest Office 2003 service pack, you do not have to install the hotfix.

Service pack information

This problem is corrected in Office 2003 Service Pack 3. To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Office 2003. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
After you install the service pack, follow the steps that are listed in the "How to enable the hotfix" section to set the DisableParenFlash registry key and to activate the hotfix.

Hotfix information

How to obtain the hotfix

This issue is fixed in the Excel 2003 post-Service Pack 2 Hotfix Package that is dated March 13, 2006. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

How to enable the hotfix

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

To enable this hotfix, follow these steps:

1. Exit Excel 2003.
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click to select the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Options
4. After you select the subkey that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
5. Type DisableParenFlash, and then press ENTER.
6. Right-click DisableParenFlash, and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
8. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

This problem was first corrected in Office 2003 Service Pack 3.