cogent free knowledge Comments

Xue: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (Xue) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:41:10 -0500

Thanks so much! Saved us a lot of hair-pulling.

Anonymous: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:19:19 -0500

Thanks for the solution, now my office is ok.

I wondered how this option could be changed without my permision

Thaks a lot.

Joel Clermont: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (Joel Clermont) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:48:50 -0500

Thanks for reporting back! Hopefully this will help someone else looking for the complete fix.

MCBob: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (MCBob) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:45:31 -0500

Final Solution - I finally got this to work exactly how it should... so disregard my prior post.

The problem with the approach I had suggested is that Windows (through the Folder Options dialog) always automatically appended %1 to the "Application used..." field which is totally WRONG because Excel will then try to open the file twice, and since it doesn't add the double quotes around the %1 it will not work for file names that include spaces in them.

I had to go into the Registry Editor (Start >> Run... and type regedit). You will need Administrator rights for this!

Navigate to HKCR\Excel.??????\Shell\Open\
(where ?????? is one of the file types I'm listing at the bottom)

In the Command key, edit the (Default) value and type:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e /dde
make sure that this is the path to Excel on your machine (if it's a different drive you can specify it here).

In the ddeexec key, edit the (Default) value and type:
[open("%1")]

Presto! Now repeat it for the rest of the file types that you want to fix, replacing the ?????? above with:

Addin
AddInMacroEnabled
Backup
Chart
Chart.8
CSV
Macrosheet
OpenDocumentSpreadsheet.12
Sheet.12
Sheet.8
SheetBinaryMacroEnabled.12
SheetMacroEnabled.12
Template
Template.8
Template.MacroEnabled
WebQuery
XLL

I also noticed that for those that I hadn't changed through the File Types dialog, they did have some weird "command" value in the "command" key that had some funky stuff... I'd also recommend deleting these command values (and leaving the (Default) in... I'm almost positive this was creating the original problem in the first place!

Hopefully this works for everyone... I'm interested to hear if anyone sees any issues with this...

MCBob: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (MCBob) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:46:29 -0500

OK... this is how my settings are and so far it's working>

Application used...
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e /dde %1

Use DDE (checked)

DDE Message:
[open("%1")]

Application:
EXCEL

DDE Application Not Running:

Topic:
System

I don't remember what the default values were for all this stuff, but hopefully they aren't the same and the original problem doesn't manifest again.

MCBob: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (MCBob) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:17:16 -0500

There is one problem with this approach. When you have a spreadsheet open and you double-click another one in Windows Explorer to open it up, it creates a new instance of Excel before it opens the new file. This creates all sort of problems because you can no longer:

Use the Excel Paste Special... dialog (the common Office-Paste Special... dialog pops up, which does not let you paste values, formulas, etc).
Move or Copy sheets from one workbook to another. Since the spreadsheets are opened in different instances of Excel they don't 'see' each other.
Window management is an issue (which I think I saw a message about this above). I think I'll change my settings back, or try to find another solution... I'll report back if I find anything.

It's just frustrating that MS wouldn't address this issue already!

ADAM: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (ADAM) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:29:33 -0500

I LOVE YOU!!!!

Phyllis: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (Phyllis) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:01:26 -0500

THANK YOU! i changed the .xls extension but it still didn't work. but then i went back in and changed the .xlsx extension and it worked!

thank you SO MUCH! you don't know long i've been fighting this!!!!!

and doing the whole "ignore other applications" was the only fix i was finding.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

Anil Kumar: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (Anil Kumar) — Wed, 5 Aug 2009 06:05:27 -0500

Excellent, It was so simple to fix. I spent hours to solve before your suggestion.

Ko: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (Ko) — Tue, 4 Aug 2009 10:21:35 -0500

THANK YOU!!!

Msmith: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (Msmith) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:28:18 -0500

Just happened to me on this machine after 5 years. Was sweating because I designed a whole shipping rate tariff program out of shortcuts on my tool bar and hyperlinks connected to folders and e-mails. Huge time saver and very complex. Then boom, it just started happening, and you fixed it just how you said too.

Only problem I have now is, should we be concerned something viral or spywhere changed the setting in the first place? Anyone heard anything like that?

Markeh: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (Markeh) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:57:24 -0500

The first fix did not work for me: "%1", but the second one did (uncheck ingore other apps that use DDE). This created another problem. I cannot open two Excel sheets and compare them side by side. I do this a LOT on two big screens attached to my laptop (2x 23"). It makes it easy to compare data between versions or use one as a reference to another. To do this the unchecked box must be checked. Anyone got another way to do this?
I had it working fine until I got an Excel file from someone who has Vista as their OS. No idea if there is a connection, but it seems weird that it only went wrong after getting this file.

: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com () — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:35:34 -0500

Thanks! This solved my problem today!

AMIT: Get a command prompt during an XP install

nospam@example.com (AMIT) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:43:33 -0500

Please Help as soon as posible

I want to run a cmd file after half installation of windows xp sp3

Means = After restarting and loading drivers

Alston: Excel opens, but the file doesn't

nospam@example.com (Alston) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:22:58 -0500

Hey Thanks a lot the fix was excellent , we need more of you guys around
God Bless