Excel Won't Open Some Files

[MayorCoffeeBean]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

If my customer updates MS Office 2004 for Mac to the most recent version (11.5.3), Excel becomes unable to open certain files. They currently have everything set back to 11.0.0, but this is a problem as they have been experiencing intermittent crashes.

If Office is updated, certain workbooks (mostly small ones) will open just fine. Clicking on some files, however, causes Excel to open and the loading bar to briefly appear, but without opening the file. The customer claims that they are only able to open workbooks with one or two sheets with 11.5, but when troubleshooting I have been able to open one workbook that is much larger. It makes no difference whether the file is opened through Finder or through File ==> Open.

There are no "/" or "\" characters in the sheet names of the workbooks that will not open. All workbooks open successfully in Apple iWork and OpenOffice.

The files have not been sent through email to my knowledge, although they may have been copied from a MobileMe iDisk at some point.

For the life of me, I cannot find anyone else online who has had this issue, nor can I see any pattern with the workbooks that won't open (including authors).

If anyone has any insight, it would be most appreciated.

 

[CyberTaz]

Is the customer running Disk Utility - Repair Disk Permissions [or the
equivalent] after applying the update? What you describe sounds like it
falls into the category of "failure to launch" which is typically a
permissions issue. It's also important that their install of OS X be fully
updated as well - you didn't mention what that is.

What happens if they try running 11.5.3 from a new User Account? How about
if they use File> Open rather than dbl-clicking the file icon?

Another possible cause is third party software or add-ins which might be
causing a conflict. See if you can identify anything of that nature & if the
problem continues once updated again try launching Excel while holding the
Shift key.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[MayorCoffeeBean]

The OS is version 10.5.6, which is the most current update. Apologies for forgetting to include that!

I'm don't think it's a permissions problem. The issue is persistent across accounts. I did repair disk permissions through Disk Utility, but the issue still exist. I believe the user does have necessary permissions to open these files, as they work just fine if Excel is left at version 11.0.0 rather than 11.5.3 or the they are opened with Apple Numbers or OpenOffice.

Workbooks will not open even if done through File => Open, nor will they open if Excel is launched while holding the Shift key.

I did check the error logs in Console and the following appears whenever I try to open one of the problematic workbooks:

[339] kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGXGetWindowWorkspace: invalid window id: 6c

Other window ID's have been 40, 4a, and 75, if that makes a difference.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

The OS is version 10.5.6, which is the most current update. Apologies for
forgetting to include that!

I'm don't think it's a permissions problem. The issue is persistent across
accounts. I did repair disk permissions through Disk Utility, but the issue
still exist. I believe the user does have necessary permissions to open these
files, as they work just fine if Excel is left at version 11.0.0 rather than
11.5.3 or the they are opened with Apple Numbers or OpenOffice.

Workbooks will not open even if done through File => Open, nor will they open
if Excel is launched while holding the Shift key.

I did check the error logs in Console and the following appears whenever I
try to open one of the problematic workbooks:

[339] kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGXGetWindowWorkspace: invalid window id: 6c

Other window ID's have been 40, 4a, and 75, if that makes a difference.

While starting XL with the shift key down SHOULD prevent preference
corruption from occurring, the first thing I'd try is, with ALL Office
apps closed, deleting or renaming any

com.microsoft.*

files and the Microsoft folder in ~:Libraryreferences (where ~ is the
home directory).

Next, I'd try creating a fresh user account and seeing if the problem
persisted. If it doesn't, some other app/haxie is interacting with XL in
your user's account.

If this happens in a fresh user account, too, I'd try round-tripping a
couple of workbooks through XML/Web Page format to see if it's workbook
corruption issue.

 

[MayorCoffeeBean]

If this happens in a fresh user account, too, I'd try round-tripping a

couple of workbooks through XML/Web Page format to see if it's workbook
corruption issue.

I renamed all com.microsoft plist files and the Microsoft folder to com.microsoft.[].old and Microsoft (old). Same workbooks failed to open.

The issue still persists with a new user account.

Can you explain what you mean by putting the workbooks though XML format? Thanks!

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Can you explain what you mean by putting the workbooks though XML format?
Thanks!

One of the options in XL04 is to save the file as a web page or as XML.
Round-tripping from xls->XML->xls should get rid of any corruption in
the workbook.

 

[MayorCoffeeBean]

Can you explain what you mean by putting the workbooks though XML format?
Thanks!

One of the options in XL04 is to save the file as a web page or as XML.
Round-tripping from xls->XML->xls should get rid of any corruption in
the workbook.
[/QUOTE]

Yes, now it does open. Am I correct that all the workbooks must be put through this process, and there is no fix for the Office application itself?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Yes, now it does open. Am I correct that all the workbooks must be put
through this process, and there is no fix for the Office application itself?

Well, it's not really a problem with the application itself (except in
the sense that it can't repair the files on open). It's a problem with
the way the files were saved. I can't tell you what went wrong with
that, but the fact that it's fixed indicates the corruption was removed.

So yes, you'll likely have to do this with each workbook that shows the
problem.

 

[MayorCoffeeBean]

OK. Thanks for your time