I ran into this issue today when I upgraded one of my machines to Windows 8.1. As part of the upgrade, my Internet explorer also got upgraded to Version 11.
Issue:
The issue is that the Tools Pane doesn't show up when you try to edit/configure a webpart on page. Instead of the usual menu (or checkbox) that brings up the Tools Pane, my browser just shows up an image similar to expand/collapse icon, shown when you access SharePoint from a unsupported browser or sometimes mobile client. On clicking the icon, I am able to either expand or collapse a webpart, but not able to edit/configure it.
Solution:
The simple solution to access the SharePoint site in a backward compatibility mode, already built into Internet Explorer 11 (I am assuming that you don't want to go back to an older version of IE).
To enable this mode, follow these steps in IE while accessing your site:
- Press ALT+ T (this will bring up the browser's Tools menu)
- Press the menu item "Compatibility View Settings"
- This will open up a dialog box with the url of your site already pre-populated. If not, go ahead and type the root url of your SharePoint site.
- Press "Close", and refresh the page.
- Browser should now display the same page in the backward compatibility modem, and you will be able to configure/edit a webpart.
Disclaimer:
There could be a more elegant solution to this issue that will enable a broader browser support for SharePoint 2013. For example, by writing CSS/JS to ensure that Edit Pane always shows up irrespective of the browser (similar to this article - http://kyleschaeffer.com/sharepoint/sharepoint-2013-web-part-tool-pane/ .
Given that my SharePoint site doesn't need to be officially supported on IE 11, and it's just a matter of time before Microsoft will officially start supporting SharePoint on IE 11, I found this quickfix to resolve this issue. Feel free to point to a better solution, if you come across one.
Addendum:
I also noticed that some of the SharePoint pages also would not go into Edit mode when using IE 11. This issue also got resolved by configuring my browser to always access this particular site in compatibility mode.
Cheers!!
Issue:
The issue is that the Tools Pane doesn't show up when you try to edit/configure a webpart on page. Instead of the usual menu (or checkbox) that brings up the Tools Pane, my browser just shows up an image similar to expand/collapse icon, shown when you access SharePoint from a unsupported browser or sometimes mobile client. On clicking the icon, I am able to either expand or collapse a webpart, but not able to edit/configure it.
Solution:
The simple solution to access the SharePoint site in a backward compatibility mode, already built into Internet Explorer 11 (I am assuming that you don't want to go back to an older version of IE).
To enable this mode, follow these steps in IE while accessing your site:
- Press ALT+ T (this will bring up the browser's Tools menu)
- Press the menu item "Compatibility View Settings"
- This will open up a dialog box with the url of your site already pre-populated. If not, go ahead and type the root url of your SharePoint site.
- Press "Close", and refresh the page.
- Browser should now display the same page in the backward compatibility modem, and you will be able to configure/edit a webpart.
There could be a more elegant solution to this issue that will enable a broader browser support for SharePoint 2013. For example, by writing CSS/JS to ensure that Edit Pane always shows up irrespective of the browser (similar to this article - http://kyleschaeffer.com/sharepoint/sharepoint-2013-web-part-tool-pane/ .
Given that my SharePoint site doesn't need to be officially supported on IE 11, and it's just a matter of time before Microsoft will officially start supporting SharePoint on IE 11, I found this quickfix to resolve this issue. Feel free to point to a better solution, if you come across one.
Addendum:
I also noticed that some of the SharePoint pages also would not go into Edit mode when using IE 11. This issue also got resolved by configuring my browser to always access this particular site in compatibility mode.
Cheers!!
