add-in made with Excel 2000 doesn't open in 2003

[Adam O'Neil]

I used Excel 2000 VBA to design and compile an add-in, and it works in 2000,
but is not recognized in Excel 2003. When I say "not recognized", I mean
that it won't appear in the list of COM add-ins--even if you explicitly add
it via the Add button on that dialog.

The best I can figure, after doing a bit of Googling and some reading here,
is that I should build the add-in in VB6. Is this correct? I don't
understand why it would matter. Can anyone shed light on that?

How would Excel 2003 know that an add-in was compiled in 2000?


thanks,

adam

 

[Stephen Bullen]

Hi Adam,

I used Excel 2000 VBA to design and compile an add-in, and it works in 2000,
but is not recognized in Excel 2003. When I say "not recognized", I mean
that it won't appear in the list of COM add-ins--even if you explicitly add
it via the Add button on that dialog.

The best I can figure, after doing a bit of Googling and some reading here,
is that I should build the add-in in VB6. Is this correct? I don't
understand why it would matter. Can anyone shed light on that?

How would Excel 2003 know that an add-in was compiled in 2000?

No, it shouldn't matter whether it was built using VB6 or the Office Developer
Extensions - both routes produce the same results, using the same compiler. I
have lots of COM Addins written with both VB6 and the ODE that work fine in all
versions of Excel, from 2000-2003.

One possible cause of your symptom is that the code in your OnConnection event
is causing a unhandled run-time error, when opened in Excel 2003. If this
happens, Excel 2003 'disables' the addin and lists it in the 'Disabled items'
list, found (bizarrely) under Help > About Excel > Disabled items.

Regards

Stephen Bullen
Microsoft MVP - Excel
www.oaltd.co.uk