I found the answer to the "pull down color pallette" problem at thread69-437781 !!!
All you have to do is right click on the desktop, choose properties, Appearance, then EFFECTS, then DISABLE the first one: "Use the following transition effect for menus and tooltips."
That fixed my 123V5 pulldown color chart problem immediately. Thank you Tek-Tips. I'm soooooooooo releived....