excel file crashes my office x excel

[bporitz1]

When I receive a specific excel file from the company I work with it
crashes my excel app. When I call them they say it is not a compatable
file for Mac. I can open on a pc save it as an excel file and send it
to myself and then it opens just fine. No special functionality.
Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

There are no Excel files that should be able to crash Excel 2004 regardless
of what version of Excel created them.

Did they say *why* this file would not be "compatible" or explain what they
mean by "compatible"?

-Jim

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

All responses should be made to this newsgroup within the same thread.
Thanks.

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if your question has already been answered.

 

[J Laroche]

Jim, it *IS* possible for an Excel file to crash Excel if there is VBA
inside. I have a potent example right here on my hard disk. See part of the
crash report after my signature.

The story of this file goes like that. I made a huge Excel add-in (xla file)
in Windows, with lots of user forms, modules and an Event class. I hoped to
run it on the Mac, but it doesn't, claiming a missing file. I tried to use
the xls version of the same add-in (saved as xls in Windows, not just
renamed on the Mac), but the same error message pops up, EVEN WITH MACROS
DISABLED. Then in Windows Excel (2000) I exported all modules, classes and
userforms to separate files. In Mac Excel (v.X) I tried to recreate the VBA
from the separate files. Somehow I managed to assemble it in a way that each
time I open the file Excel crashes, EVEN WITH MACROS DISABLED. Despite my
best efforts though, I haven't been able so far to create an identical file
that behaves the same way. On the other hand at one point I started getting
the message that my assembly contained version 4.0 macros. Weird!

I therefore believe that bporitz1's file contains some VBA and/or userforms
making Excel crash.

By the way, it's not possible to import userforms in the Mac's VBA. Bummer!

JL
Mac OS X 10.3.7, Office v.X 10.1.6


Part of the crash report:
Command: Microsoft Excel
Path: /Applications/Microsoft Office X/Microsoft Excel
Version: ??? (???)
PID: 591
Thread: 0

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000018



Jim Gordon MVP wrote on 2005/01/17 22:20:

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi J,

It's not always fun to play detective, is it?

There are some significant differences between VBA for Mac and VBA for
Windows. There were some (not very many) bug fixes in Excel 2004 VBA, so
you might want to try 2004 if things don't work for you in version X.

Mac VBA does not support Active-X controls and is at VBA version 5.
Anything that was new in VBA version 6 won't work in Mac Excel.

Some web queries are known to cause XL to crash in XL version X, but
this was fixed in 2004.

The "missing file" message sounds like a key to solving the problem.
MacOS will occassionally have trouble finding or using files, even its
own files, if UNIX permissions are not correctly set. Apple provides a
Utility called Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder). Use it to repair
permissions. Perhaps there is nothing wrong with your code and maybe
Excel just can't run a required file it needs because of permissions
problems. Repairing permissions is a good first step when troubleshooting.

Do you have any pictures on the userforms? Pictures on userforms cause
trouble going between Mac and Windows.

Do you have any hard coded file names in your code? Anything that is
pushing the envelope in terms of long file names or links?

The VB editor on the Mac version is far less robust than the Windows
version, but it works. Personally I prefer not having autocomplete, and
I sometimes get better code examples from the Mac help system, but as
you have seen, the Mac version is quite plain.

-Jim

 

[J Laroche]

Jim,

It's not *always* fun to play detective, but it often is.

The most disturbing part for me is that if I tell Excel to disable macros
when I open a file, why is it immediately crashing or reporting a missing
file? I would think that all it'd do is load the code and leave it alone.
That way at least I could launch the editor and fix what's broken. In this
instance however, there are no hard-coded file paths (file names in
constants, yes), pictures in userforms (colored buttons, yes), Active-X
controls I don't think so (I use toolbox controls, but as I said, when I
recreate from independent files I cannot import userforms anyway), things
from VBA 6 possibly.

I regularly repair the permissions and it has never fixed the missing file
problem. Well at least moving this add-in to Mac was more or less only an
exercise. On the other hand I have Windows-using friends who sometimes ask
me to debug their VBA.

JL
Mac OS X 10.3.7, Office v.X 10.1.6



Jim Gordon MVP wrote on 2005/01/18 23:34:

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Well, it sounds like you know what to do.

Start with a clean, empty workbook and keep building it until something
causes it to die. Then you can tell us what it was and maybe we can
report it as a bug.

-Jim