Personal.xls

[Doug Boufford]

I re-installed Office 2000 onto a new laptop running WIN XP Pro from an
older one running WIN 98SE.

All of my macros are stored in Personal.xls, and ran perfectly on old
laptop. Now when I try to run a macro, I receive the message that a file
named Personal.xls is already open and you cannot open 2 files with the
same name. (This I know!)Personal.xls always loaded but was hidden.

I can't figure out what I have forgotten to change in the new setup to
let the macros run.
Any hints would be appreciated...

TIA
Doug

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
try:
http://www.contextures.com/xlfaqApp.html#AlreadyOpen

 

[Doug Boufford]

Frank Kabel wrote:

Hi
try:
http://www.contextures.com/xlfaqApp.html#AlreadyOpen

Frank
Thanks for the link, but neither trick fixed the problem

Doug

 

[Dick Kusleika]

Doug

Win98SE and WinXP store the XLSTART folder in different places, post
Excel97, I believe. It sounds like you have two Personal.xls files on your
hard drive. Here's a scenario where that could happen: You install Excel
on your WinXP and record a macro to Personal.xls. This creates a
Personal.xls in Application Data\Microsoft\...\XLStart\. You move your old
Personal.xls to your new laptop in its current location, likely \Program
Files\Microsoft Office\Office\XLStart\ and now you have two files with the
same name. The newer Personal.xls is opened when Excel starts, but all your
shortcuts, buttons, etc. point to the old file. It tries to open the old
file and you get a name conflict.

Search your hard drive for Personal.xls and you'll probably get two hits.
Rename one of them and open them both in Excel. Consolidate all of the
macros in both into the one still name Personal.xls and save it to the
Application Data path. Delete the other one. Now all your buttons will be
totally screwed up because the file they point to won't exist. You'll have
to reassign the macros to them. You could avoid that by deleting the newer
file and consolidating into the older one, but for a little work to reassign
them, I think you'll be better off having the file in the right place.

On the other hand, I could be way off and that's not the problem at all.

 

[Doug Boufford]

Doug

Win98SE and WinXP store the XLSTART folder in different places, post
Excel97, I believe. It sounds like you have two Personal.xls files on your
hard drive. Here's a scenario where that could happen: You install Excel
on your WinXP and record a macro to Personal.xls. This creates a
Personal.xls in Application Data\Microsoft\...\XLStart\. You move your old
Personal.xls to your new laptop in its current location, likely \Program
Files\Microsoft Office\Office\XLStart\ and now you have two files with the
same name. The newer Personal.xls is opened when Excel starts, but all your
shortcuts, buttons, etc. point to the old file. It tries to open the old
file and you get a name conflict.

Search your hard drive for Personal.xls and you'll probably get two hits.
Rename one of them and open them both in Excel. Consolidate all of the
macros in both into the one still name Personal.xls and save it to the
Application Data path. Delete the other one. Now all your buttons will be
totally screwed up because the file they point to won't exist. You'll have
to reassign the macros to them. You could avoid that by deleting the newer
file and consolidating into the older one, but for a little work to reassign
them, I think you'll be better off having the file in the right place.

On the other hand, I could be way off and that's not the problem at all.

Dick
Many thanks for the post. I have had to re-format & re-install the
laptop, so I am just getting back to this forum now.

The laptop is running XP Pro - (fresh install)

There are 2 locations for XLSTART:

C:\Documents and Settings\Douglas A. Boufford\Application
Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART - with NOTHING IN IT
AND
E:\Microsoft Office\Office\XLStart - with BOOK.XLT and PERSONAL.XLS in it.

I ran Excel & recorded a macro, saved it to Personal.xls, and it went to
the file in E:\Microsoft Office\Office\XLStart.

I liked your logic and thought we had an answer, but.............

Doug

 

[Dick Kusleika]

The laptop is running XP Pro - (fresh install)

There are 2 locations for XLSTART:

C:\Documents and Settings\Douglas A. Boufford\Application
Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART - with NOTHING IN IT
AND
E:\Microsoft Office\Office\XLStart - with BOOK.XLT and PERSONAL.XLS
in it.
I ran Excel & recorded a macro, saved it to Personal.xls, and it went
to the file in E:\Microsoft Office\Office\XLStart.

I liked your logic and thought we had an answer, but.............

Dang. How are you running your macros? Commandbutton? Toolbar button?
Other? See if you can find where its pointing. For instance, if you're
using a toolbar button, check

?Application.Commandbars("Standard").Controls(10).OnAction

in the Immediate Window. Be sure to change the names and numbers to fit
your siutation. For a command button,

?Sheet1.Shapes("MyButton").OnAction

See if those point to the same Personal.xls as the one where your recorded
macro ended up.

Also, did you happen to search for Personal.xls on your drive or just
xlstart? You could have a Personal.xls in a non-xlstart folder that could
be causing the problem.

 

[Doug Boufford]

Doug

Win98SE and WinXP store the XLSTART folder in different places, post
Excel97, I believe. It sounds like you have two Personal.xls files on your
hard drive. Here's a scenario where that could happen: You install Excel
on your WinXP and record a macro to Personal.xls. This creates a
Personal.xls in Application Data\Microsoft\...\XLStart\. You move your old
Personal.xls to your new laptop in its current location, likely \Program
Files\Microsoft Office\Office\XLStart\ and now you have two files with the
same name. The newer Personal.xls is opened when Excel starts, but all your
shortcuts, buttons, etc. point to the old file. It tries to open the old
file and you get a name conflict.

Search your hard drive for Personal.xls and you'll probably get two hits.
Rename one of them and open them both in Excel. Consolidate all of the
macros in both into the one still name Personal.xls and save it to the
Application Data path. Delete the other one. Now all your buttons will be
totally screwed up because the file they point to won't exist. You'll have
to reassign the macros to them. You could avoid that by deleting the newer
file and consolidating into the older one, but for a little work to reassign
them, I think you'll be better off having the file in the right place.

On the other hand, I could be way off and that's not the problem at all.

Dick
I have just gotten back to this prob & re-read your post. The 2nd para
tweaked my brain (what's left of it) On the old comp the XLStart folder
was on drive F & on the new one it's on E. Obviously, the button is
looking for personal.xls on Drive F.............duhhh!!
Many thanks for your help in getting the brain to think "logically"

Doug

 

[Dick Kusleika]

Glad to hear it, Doug. Those can be real head-scrathers.