I have a client who uses 'Insert/Table/Excel Spreadsheet' with Word 2007.
This does not link to another existing excel document but basically makes a
table in the middle of the word document. It worked fine for some time but
suddenly he is getting this error when he tries to open/edit the embedded
worksheet:
"The program used to create this object is Excel. That program is not
installed on your computer. To edit this object, you must install a program
that can open the object."
Excel is installed and works perfectly fine on its own. In fact, if I make
a new Word document and do 'Insert/Table/Excel Spreadsheet' to this new
document, it will open the worksheet just fine until I save and reopen the
file. He has another computer at his office that has this problem too, but
most of them are fine.
We have done repair and full removal and reinstall of Office 2007 Pro and
still get this error. I found something that referenced Norton antivirus
plugins but he does not use Norton. I disabled his antivirus anyway but that
didn't help either.
Anyone have any ideas?
Andrew -
For a moment there I thought I was reading one of my own posts !
So far, I can only offer commiseration - I have posted many times on
this EXACT topic in many forums and it seems no one has a clue. I
apologize for the following detail, but I hope it may help someone
decipher this problem...
The MS Office 2007 software no longer sends my errors to MS one at a
time, it does it 5-10 items at a time every day or two. I went so far
as to wipe the hard drive and do a clean install of both XP Pro and
Office 2007 Pro. I have left off 90% of all other programs until this
is fixed. Nothing has changed. The only thing that cut down
problems was increasing RAM to 1GB. ( all RAM passed extended testing
fine, and the problem is not limited to just one system. ) Currently,
with one of the "problem" files open, and running Word plus other
spreadsheets in XL, I have 800+ MB RAM free. Not hitting a wall
there. No file format conversion - all Docs and Spreadsheets in docx
and xlsx formats. Also, Anti-Virus (Computer Associates Internet
Security Suite in my case) disabled or not has no effect.
I use Word, Excel, and Outlook fairly heavily, and all three are
doing similar things:
The most minor problem is the error message, ( when I am in Word, but
with the Excel "window" in the document selected and active ): "An
unexpected error has occurred. Autorecover has been disabled for this
session of Excel."
Another error is an Excel error message box ( again when I am in Word,
but with the Excel "window" in the document selected and active ) :
"The file could not be accessed, try one of the following:
-Make sure the specified folder exists
-Make sure the folder that contains the file is not read only
-Make sure the file name does not contain any of the following
characters < > ? [ ] : | or *
-Make sure the file/path name does not contain any more than 218
characters"
None of thes restrictions are being violated, and while the
spread sheet is inaccessable for a while after I clear the dialog box,
IF I WAIT FOR A FEW MINUTES, everything usually returns to normal as
if I did not have any problem at all !
However, if I save the file while the Excel link is dead,
only an un-editable image will be saved in the window.
In addition, on occasion, I will find that when I double
click on the link to the XL file, what I see when the link is inactive
will be DIFFERENT from what appears when I activate the link. I
cannot synchronize the two in any way and have to copy everything to a
new document and start over - then things work OK again for that new
copy of that document.
The next level of absurdity is the error message you mentioned, again
in Word, but this time with a Word heading on the box:
"The program used to create this object is Excel. That program
is not installed on your computer. To edit this object, you must
install a program that can open the object."
I find this absurd only because it may happen when I am using only
Word, but it also happens when I have an open window to a spreadsheet
directly in Excel and it continues to work fine! I have even tried
running word on one system and excel on another to eliminate conflicts
- still happens. Where the document is and where the program is does
not seem to matter at all. doc on system A and programs on B, vice
versa, or all on one or the other - no difference.
At the recommendation of one MSCE, I downloaded and installed yet
another copy of Office just in case my hard copy was damaged - again
no change.
Then there is a printing issue - the example I saved is from Outlook,
but it has happened with Word and Excel as well. Keep in mind that in
MY case, there are NO local printers - only networked ones. The
problem seems to happen most often when the Default Printer is
Offline, but even though there are sometimes as many as 10 printers
listed as "Ready" I get the message:
"Printing is not available. There are NO printers installed. You can
select and configure a printer in windows control panel."
Maybe it is just me, but since when is 10 < 0 ??? Please note that
this configuration is ALWAYS the case, and 80+% of the time things
work just fine.
I really like some of the features of Office 2007, but frankly I need
to get some work done too. If anyone has ANY suggestions on this,
your comments would be appreciated. I find it tough to sell this
software to my SMB clients when I cannot get it to work for myself !
Bruce Lightfoot
HelpDesk180
(e-mail address removed)
