Excel Compiler - is one available?

[John Baker]

Hi:

I have a spreadsheet which i need to have all the Associates in a company use to report
time worked on projects. I find that there is no software standard for associates, and
that not all of them have Excel installed (the basis for the spreadsheet). Does anyone
know of an Excel compiler I could use to generate code that would emulate Excel and (most
important) produce an output file that would appear TO Excel to be an Excel file?

I know the real answer ( "no brainer") is to but Excel for all associates, but the company
is not keen on that because of the cost.


Help appreciated

John Baker

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

No, but you can use open office which is free:

http://www.openoffice.org/

It will read and write Excel files.

 

[John Baker]

Tom:

Does it mess with anythng when you install it? Is there a snag? Does it run Excel Macros?


Regards

John Baker

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

I haven't used it, so I can't say. Check out the link - there is a lot of
information there. It does have a scripting capability it appears, but I
don't know how compatible it is with VBA.

 

[John Baker]

Tom

It looked good and I installed it!

UNfortunately, now when I click on an .xls file, it thinks I want to use OpenOffice! How
do I reset the relationship between .xls files and Excel. I only want to use open office
for a couple of key things,and would be happy to go through the menus in the application
for that.

Help Please

John baker

 

[Kevin Stecyk]

Hi John,

This is from Win2K help. It might be different for your system.

To associate a file extension with a file type

1. Open Folder Options in Control Panel.
2. Click the File Types tab.
3. Click New.
4. Type a new or existing file name extension, and then click Advanced.
5. In File type, click New to create a new file type that is associated with
the file name extension. Or, click one of the existing file types.

Notes

To open a Control Panel item, click Start, point to Settings, click Control
Panel, and then double-click the appropriate icon. Or, in Windows Explorer,
click Tools, and then click Folder Options.

For information about how to make modifications to the file type, see
Related Topics.

To change the program that opens a file, on the File Types tab, click
Change.



Regards,
kevin

 

[John Baker]

Kevin:

Unfortunatley it does appear to be different. I got to the point of opening Excel when I
click on an xls, bt for some reason it wont find the file I want to open!

Is there any program in the Office suite I can run to reset this mess?

Regards

John

 

[Kevin Stecyk]

John,

What operating system are you using?

Another technique you can try is this:

1) right mouse click an Excel file (*.xls) using Windows Explorer
2) click properties
3) Find where it says "Open With" and hit the change button
4) Find Excel and select Excel

Changing the XLS to be opened by Excel should not a big deal. Let me know
how you make out.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Dave Peterson]

Close excel if you have it running
windows start button
run
excel /unregserver
then
excel /regserver

This resets the excel portion of windows registry to factory defaults. (I hope
that it'll tell excel to take ownership back.)

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

I assume you did the excel /regserver bit as I advised in response to your
email. so
go into tools=>Options, general tab and make sure ignore other applications
is unchecked.

 

[John Baker]

Thank you all for getting me out of "another fine mess". My own fault for NOT doing the
reg bit before I installed. BUt have sorted it out through your advise.

I wish some of these apps would ask if you want them to take control, rather than grabbing
it!

The OpenOffice app is OK (and free sho why should one complain) , and appears to run basic
xls sheets just fine. Macros, on the other hand, don't appear to transfer at all well.

Thanks again

John Baker

 

[Jerry W. Lewis]

Another free Excel clone is available from

http://www.byedesign.freeserve.co.uk/

Jerry