Problem opening Excel 2007 files

[Michael Julson]

I've been using Office 2007 for some time and a new problem just came up.
When I try to open excel files either from outlook or an icon, it's opening
in a very odd window.

It comes up in a new window that is pale blue. There's no title bar saying
excel, filename, no minimize, maximize, exit buttons. Ready is shown in the
top left corner, next to that is a white box that when I hover it says no
macros are recording, click to begin recording. On the top right area is
three boxes that look like view layouts. pressing them does nothing. Then
last in the right top corner is a zoom slider currently at 100%. changing
that makes no difference.

Then the entire middle area of the window is blank, just solid pale blue.

Nothing on the bottom. Interesting thing is that I can resize the window
from the bottom and if I shrink it down to a 1/4 inch or so, the title bar
appears, I get the min/max/close buttons, excel title is there with no file
name, and then I get the ribbon back. But there's still no workbook.

I wish the group supported images, as I would have put a screen shot up
making it easier.

If I open excel from the start menu, it opens fine, I can then go pick a
file and it seems to work okay.

Any ideas on what is going on? I just tried windows update and it didn't
make a difference.

 

[Jan Hime]

I just recently acquired this same problem. I tried to do a Repair install
of Office, and that didn't help.

 

[Jan Hime]

................also, the blue bar at the top is the status bar (instead of at
the bottom where it should be) and if I right click on it I get the Customize
Status Bar dialog box.

 

[vmlrodrigues]

I've been having the same issue for sometime now and it's
exceptionally annoying. Has anyone found a resolution to this problem?

 

[vmlrodrigues]

I've been having the same issue for sometime now and it's
exceptionally annoying. Has anyone found a resolution to this problem?

 

[wilhelm.helmbold]

I've been having the same issue for sometime now and it's
exceptionally annoying. Has anyone found a resolution to this problem?

Same problem here - the Status Bar opens at the top of the window. I
can close it with an Alt-F4 and after several attempts I can get Excel
to start normally. I find it strange that it is not consistent in the
way it starts up. Sometimes I have to try up to 10 times - and then
Excel starts.

I have tried to start Excel in Safe Mode - same behavior. I recently
did a clean install (Vista) - same behavior.

There is one thing that nags at the back of my mind . . . the copy of
Office 2007 I use is a Trial Version, converted to a full version
after purchasing a key. Could this be the problem?

 

[tsmith7]

Same issue here - NOT a trial copy and nothing but excel is running when this
error occurs. Same random pattern of sometimes does it, sometimes does not.
NEW computer with vista home premium. Anyone help? All I get is the
annoying blue screen with the status bar at the top.

 

[Quazi Boudreaux]

Same problem for several weeks now but no solution. I have read a thread in
which microsoft help witnessed the problem on the customer's computer via
remote assist but claims to have never seen nor heard of the problem before
and had no solution for the customer.

Currently I have been able to successfully open the file by holding down
Ctrl key while opening the file but this comes with it's limitations.

I hope microsoft creates a fix soon.

Please keep us all posted.

 

[Leigh]

Just adding my name to the list. I've never found a problem that I couldn't
solve through the use of Google or user groups or some other online resource
until now. I'm amazed that Office 2007 Professional bought from the store
and installed on a machine that has Windows Vista Ultimate on it should
display such a large bug with no fix available. There have been times I
could not get Excel to open normally (i.e. display a blank worksheet instead
of the blue blank with the zoom in the upper corner) for 15 minutes despite
repeated tries at starting the program different ways and closing down all
other running programs.

Hoping that if enough people post, it will get someones attention and a fix
will be found.

 

[GregMan]

Same problem exactly with full Office 2007 install on new install of Vista
Premium. For what it is worth, I've been able to get rid of the problem
sporadically but it eventually comes back. For some reason, the installation
of iTunes and it's components *seem* to have something to do with it (or are
exposing an issue in Excel).

So, if I open Excel (either just by itself or from a clicking an xls file or
recent xls file), and it comes up with the blank screen, I Alt-F4 to close
it. I then bring up the Task Manager and if iTunesHelper.exe or iTunes.exe
are running (look at processes tab), I right-mouse-click them and choose "End
Process Tree" on them. Once I do that, I can then sometimes try to open
excel and it works. If that doesn't work, I then go to the Services tab of
Task Manager and stop the AppleMobile service and try Excel and if there is
still a problem, I stop the iPod Service.

So, like I said, this helps sporadically since I can run Excel, exit it then
run it again and it will work sometimes for a few times and then eventually
it goes back to the blank screen.

It should be noted, that I've even uninstalled iTunes completely and the
problem still pops up and goes away so I don't think it is *just* iTunes
which is causing the problem but some other processes/services are making
Excel weird. I also installed and unstalled Adobe Reader and this
sporadically fixed the problem but it came back.

I may decide to wipe the machine again and try to slowly add things to see
what causes it but am not yet motivated to take that hit in down time. Maybe
if Microsoft will give me a free Zune or a Testing job I'd try ...

Another thing, if you get the blank screen and can resize it, keep making it
bigger and smaller and eventually the menu ribbon comes up. Funny thing is
that when the blank screen comes up and all you see is the status bar (now it
appears on the top of the window), it looks like a bad low-res bitmap of the
status bar (e.g. text is fuzzy/pixelated). I get the feeling that the client
area is somewhere "above" the window but the only thing above that on my
machine is my web cam...

Hope this helps whomever.

G

 

[markhedaya]

Same problem exactly with full Office 2007 install on new install of Vista
Premium. For what it is worth, I've been able to get rid of the problem
sporadically but it eventually comes back. For some reason, the installation
of iTunes and it's components *seem* to have something to do with it (or are
exposing an issue in Excel).

So, if I open Excel (either just by itself or from a clicking an xls file or
recent xls file), and it comes up with the blank screen, I Alt-F4 to close
it. I then bring up the Task Manager and if iTunesHelper.exe or iTunes.exe
are running (look at processes tab), I right-mouse-click them and choose "End
Process Tree" on them. Once I do that, I can then sometimes try to open
excel and it works. If that doesn't work, I then go to the Services tab of
Task Manager and stop the AppleMobile service and try Excel and if there is
still a problem, I stop the iPod Service.

So, like I said, this helps sporadically since I can run Excel, exit it then
run it again and it will work sometimes for a few times and then eventually
it goes back to the blank screen.

It should be noted, that I've even uninstalled iTunes completely and the
problem still pops up and goes away so I don't think it is *just* iTunes
which is causing the problem but some other processes/services are making
Excel weird. I also installed and unstalled Adobe Reader and this
sporadically fixed the problem but it came back.

I may decide to wipe the machine again and try to slowly add things to see
what causes it but am not yet motivated to take that hit in down time. Maybe
if Microsoft will give me a free Zune or a Testing job I'd try ...

Another thing, if you get the blank screen and can resize it, keep making it
bigger and smaller and eventually the menu ribbon comes up. Funny thing is
that when the blank screen comes up and all you see is the status bar (now it
appears on the top of the window), it looks like a bad low-res bitmap of the
status bar (e.g. text is fuzzy/pixelated). I get the feeling that the client
area is somewhere "above" the window but the only thing above that on my
machine is my web cam...

Hope this helps whomever.

G









- Show quoted text -

Hey Guys,

I have been having the same problem as you guys, but the only
difference is, when I try open a file by shortcut, I get this
message.. "Windows cannot find 'FILE NAME and LOCATION'. Make sure you
typed the name correctly, and then try again." however, if I go into
excel and open that file I dont have the problem. This acutally caused
a lot of problems because I had to replace documents with older
versions just to find out that I just erased valuable information and
it wasnt even necessary. It is strange that this only occurs in excel
and not in the rest of the suite. I tried installing just excel out of
the suite and I get the same problem.

The next question I really want to ask you guys is, what kind of
computer do you all have? Dells? Perhaps its consistant in a specific
company's computer.

I installed excel/suite on another computer that isnt a dell and didnt
hae this problem.

I'm sure everyone else is also going crazy, but excel is a program I
use on a dialy basis..

Thanks,
M

 

[summthings]

I'm using an HP Pavillion a750y desktop.

Hey Guys,

I have been having the same problem as you guys, but the only
difference is, when I try open a file by shortcut, I get this
message.. "Windows cannot find 'FILE NAME and LOCATION'. Make sure you
typed the name correctly, and then try again." however, if I go into
excel and open that file I dont have the problem. This acutally caused
a lot of problems because I had to replace documents with older
versions just to find out that I just erased valuable information and
it wasnt even necessary. It is strange that this only occurs in excel
and not in the rest of the suite. I tried installing just excel out of
the suite and I get the same problem.

The next question I really want to ask you guys is, what kind of
computer do you all have? Dells? Perhaps its consistant in a specific
company's computer.

I installed excel/suite on another computer that isnt a dell and didnt
hae this problem.

I'm sure everyone else is also going crazy, but excel is a program I
use on a dialy basis..

Thanks,
M

 

[xavier.le.naour]

I have the same problem since a few days...
The only way for me to get rid of that is to kill the process tree and
the reopen Excel. Kinda boring since all my pro documents are excel's

By the way this happens only on my (home made) vista's computer. My
laptop (HP nx6110, XP pro SP2), does not have this problem.

 

[Blobby]

I have a similar problem - when I open a 2003 file from a link or windows
explorer, it opens up in a (normal) excel window but won't maximise inside
that window as there are no buttons at the top RH corner of the window. When
this happens, I can't close down the instance of excel without killing the
process in task manager.

Works fine when the same file is opened from within excel.

 

[Blobby]

Correction: The same thing happens when the file is opened from Excel.

Unprotecting the workbook seems to have removed the problem for now, but I
don't recall this issue existing in previous versions.

 

[ATCE]

May have found a fix!

Any of you have Logitech software installed? See this thread over on
the Logitech site.

http://forums.logitech.com/logitech...ckcam_software&message.id=30161&query.id=6400

In short: Upgrade to the 11.5 version of the QuickCam software, this
seems to have worked for folks there.

 

[Mhedaya]

logitech is installed on my computer. I have installed the upgrade,
cant wait to run tests.

hope this works, thanks atce.

 

[Tony Bailey]

I updated my QuickCam software to v11.5

QuickCam Pro 5000 hardware.

The Excel 2007 blank page behavior no longer occurs.

I am running Excel 2007 and Windows Vista Ultimate.

11.5 is here: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/435/243&cl=us,en

Tony.

 

[Quazi Boudreaux]

Finally! I am using QuickCam Pro 5000 and after an update to the 11.5 driver
my "pale blue screen" issue with Excel seems to have been solved.