# Unable to Open Excel 2007 Documents



## gavin87

hello again,

I have an issue actually at my workplace that is becoming quite common. Microsoft Excel 2007 seems to be having issues opening up documents. Excel opens up but not the file. If you click to minimize the window the document magically appears. 

What I have tried -

I did some research. There was the possibility that Excel's DDE was causing it to hang in the opening of files. I tried 'ignoring all other DDE programs' in excel options (microsoft suggested this). I also thought it was some of the add-ins loading on start-up that caused the problem. So i did a search for all .xla files on the computer. Deleted all 13 of these. It seemed to work on one of the problem pc's however it didn't on the other. I also re-installed the entire microsoft office 2007 suite. All of these solutions had limited or no success.

Have any of you heard about this? Any suggestions?


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## mkikuyu

gavin87 said:


> hello again,
> 
> I have an issue actually at my workplace that is becoming quite common. Microsoft Excel 2007 seems to be having issues opening up documents. Excel opens up but not the file. If you click to minimize the window the document magically appears.
> 
> What I have tried -
> 
> I did some research. There was the possibility that Excel's DDE was causing it to hang in the opening of files. I tried 'ignoring all other DDE programs' in excel options (microsoft suggested this). I also thought it was some of the add-ins loading on start-up that caused the problem. So i did a search for all .xla files on the computer. Deleted all 13 of these. It seemed to work on one of the problem pc's however it didn't on the other. I also re-installed the entire microsoft office 2007 suite. All of these solutions had limited or no success.
> 
> Have any of you heard about this? Any suggestions?


I am also having the same problem with a particular user at my company. Does anyone out there have any suggestions. Thank You


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## woodman47

Hi, I can go one further and say i have the occasional .xlsx that will not open. Excel reports 'done' and gives no error messages. but excel is empty. The minimise trick does not work form me. Any help would be really good...! Please


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## Glaswegian

From what I can find, it may be a possible issue with *Personal.xlsb* - the file where your personal macros are stored. Navigate to here and delete the file (if there is a file)

C:\Documents and Settings\USERID\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART

Excel will create a new file if you record a macro.

There is also a possible conflict with Logitech Webcam Pro 5000 - if you have this, you need to obtain drivers version 11.5


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## woodman47

Thanks for the suggestion, but no luck i'm afraid. Just to amplify my symptoms: This is the second time this has happened (over the course of the last 6 months or so), both times with multi page spreadsheets with no macros and few bells and whistles: just simple formulae and lots of data. All my other xlsx files continue to open just fine and I get no error messages or warnings and autorecover doesn't happen. I'm going to re-install 2003 and try opening via the compatibility pack down load. I'll let you know what happens


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## woodman47

Follow up. No luck with 2003 or, incidentally, with Acrobat 8 which gave a file error message. I presume therefore that excel 07 has corrupted the file. Am giving up, going back to a backup version of my spreadsheet which I will save as 2003 format, re-nter the lost data and never, ever trust 2007 with my work again. sad but true!


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## woodman47

OK I have a solution (if anyone's interested!)
The problem: Excel 2007 opens to a blank window (not even a blank worksheet) when a spreadsheet on which I have been working all year is clicked. No error messages.
Tried minimise/maximise to no effect
Document apparently completely lost. (not the first time either)
The solution: 
Click on document
When app opens, click 'file open'
navigate to document and click (still nothing in Excel window)
Go to View tab
Click unhide and select spreadsheet.

I should say I have never hidden a spreadsheet in my life and 'unhiding' doesn't work until the second opening.
Bizarre but true.
Shame I had re-entered all the lost data into a backup (xls) before I stumbled on the solution.


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## shibumams

Try this,
Office button, Excel options, Advanced tab, general section: 
make sure "Ignore other applications that use DDE" is unchecked . It should work, It worked for me


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## ASHORT

This worked for me.


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## zimmerhaven

Glaswegian - you are genius! Your response is the only one I found on the internet that fixed the above problem that my users were having most of the time. Thank you so much!

I have posted the fix to a MS Excel group that discusses it in more detail and here is the link:
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...4af7&mid=3f2641fe-0aff-4f6e-9ac1-dde3228b4af7

- Alex Zimmerhaven


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## Glaswegian

Glad you got it sorted. 

Genius - wait till I tell the wife that one...:grin:


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## mohan_vish1

hi woodman47, your solution worked like a charm, thank you very much.


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## baregan

There's another permanent solution to this issue.

In Windows Explorer go to:
*Tools*>*Folder Options*>*File Types*

Then scroll down to *XLSX* and click *Advanced*.
Under *Options*double-click/Edit *OPEN*

Change the line under *"Applications to Perform action"* from

_"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e_

to

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

Also DDE Message should be:
_[open("%1")]_

That fixs the issue permanently.


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## zimmerhaven

OK. I would like to say a few things about baregan's proposed solution. (above)

1. It is plastered all over the internet.
2. It doesn't work. And least it never has for me and I've tried it on a ton of pc's that were having the problem.
3. It actually really screws things up. For some reason, when you try to make the changes described above - it's messes something up and you can't put it back. So, in several cases, I've literally had to uninstall Office 07 and reinstall, even after I put the settings back to what they originally were. It's weird, but something gets changed and it can't go back.

So - unless you are totally desperate - proceed with caution on the baregan's solution above.

You see - what I learned from Glaswegian, that no one in the world understood is that XLstart file was causing the problem. Messing with file extensions and such will get you nowhere fast. It's a false path. At least from my point of view.

Good luck to all with this issue.

- Alex Zimmerhaven


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## baregan

zimmerhaven said:


> OK. I would like to say a few things about baregan's proposed solution. (above)
> 
> 1. It is plastered all over the internet.
> 2. It doesn't work. And least it never has for me and I've tried it on a ton of pc's that were having the problem.
> 3. It actually really screws things up. For some reason, when you try to make the changes described above - it's messes something up and you can't put it back. So, in several cases, I've literally had to uninstall Office 07 and reinstall, even after I put the settings back to what they originally were. It's weird, but something gets changed and it can't go back.
> 
> So - unless you are totally desperate - proceed with caution on the baregan's solution above.
> 
> You see - what I learned from Glaswegian, that no one in the world understood is that XLstart file was causing the problem. Messing with file extensions and such will get you nowhere fast. It's a false path. At least from my point of view.
> 
> Good luck to all with this issue.
> 
> - Alex Zimmerhaven


Alex sorry to hear that this didnt work for you. However:
1. I can only quote my own experience, where this fix worked on a dozen pc's afflicated with this issue.
2. If the issue still resides, its not difficult to reverse the change.
3. Maybe rather than criticize other posters you should offer more constructive analysis in your own post rather than "- it's messes something up and you can't put it back." :4-dontkno:sigh:

Regards,
Barry


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## rahul.gandhi

There is a very simple fix for this. 


Open Excel 
Click the Microsoft button (Round button top left) 
Click on the Excel Options button 
Select Add-ins on the left menu 
At the bottom of the screen make sure the pull-down window says excel add-ins 
Click Go 
Enable the look-up wizard 
Put a check mark beside Lookup Wizard 
Click OK
Please Note:
In some cases, Microsoft might mention that the add-on is not installed and ask if you want to install it. Select Yes and let it run through the installation. When it is finished, you will not get a confirmation, but the installation window will be gone.
let me know if the problem solved or ??


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## the-letter-g

I had a different problem (and hence different solution). First, huge thanks to Glaswegian for pointing me to the XLSTART folder. In my case, it was c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12\XLSTART

In here I had .xls sheet in Excel'03 form that had some personal macros. I'm not a expert Excel user, so perhaps these belonged elsewhere, but whatever. During my install, the wizard dutifully copied the .xls file from OFFICE11 to OFFICE12.

On a hunch, I opened the .xls in Excel'07 and saved it back as a .xlsm (macro-enabled) file. Don't forget to mark it read-only!

All works like a charm now.


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## ajingar

Thank you very much Rahul Gandhi - as no one here has thanked you for your fix (which worked straight away), I felt the need to mention the thanks.

Regards, Ashok


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## robaki

baregan said:


> There's another permanent solution to this issue.
> 
> In Windows Explorer go to:
> *Tools*>*Folder Options*>*File Types*
> 
> Then scroll down to *XLSX* and click *Advanced*.
> Under *Options*double-click/Edit *OPEN*
> 
> Change the line under *"Applications to Perform action"* from
> 
> _"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e_
> 
> to
> 
> _"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"_
> 
> Also DDE Message should be:
> _[open("%1")]_
> 
> That fixs the issue permanently.


WARNING - As Zimmerman stated, do not do this unless you have tried other solutions first. This setting did not work AND in fact creates errors when you open a spreadsheet, it behaved virus like in that you cannot revert the settings. Unlike Zimmerman, I was able to do a system restore to remove that change...very strange.

What did work for me was Gandhi's fix - Thank you!


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## robaki

Apologies to ZimmerHAVEN for the name botching.
After the above post I noticed that even Gandhi's fix is a little peculiar. After the document is opened and you close the document, there is another Excel window you need to close. It behaves as though I X'd out of the document even though I X'd out of the program. It does close fine if I go to MS Office button > Close.
Still searching for the perfect solution....


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## JCantu

rahul.gandhi said:


> There is a very simple fix for this.
> 
> 
> Open Excel
> Click the Microsoft button (Round button top left)
> Click on the Excel Options button
> Select Add-ins on the left menu
> At the bottom of the screen make sure the pull-down window says excel add-ins
> Click Go
> Enable the look-up wizard
> Put a check mark beside Lookup Wizard
> Click OK
> Please Note:
> In some cases, Microsoft might mention that the add-on is not installed and ask if you want to install it. Select Yes and let it run through the installation. When it is finished, you will not get a confirmation, but the installation window will be gone.
> let me know if the problem solved or ??


Thanks Rahul,

This worked like a charm for me!


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## excelledout

Same thing here. I had the opening problem and also the closing problem. Gandi's fix worked to open documents correctly, but I still have to "close twice" if you will. I removed the files from the XLSTART folder and fixed all issues, but now i've lost my personal macros.


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## Rootski

rahul.gandhi said:


> There is a very simple fix for this.
> 
> 
> Open Excel
> Click the Microsoft button (Round button top left)
> Click on the Excel Options button
> Select Add-ins on the left menu
> At the bottom of the screen make sure the pull-down window says excel add-ins
> Click Go
> Enable the look-up wizard
> Put a check mark beside Lookup Wizard
> Click OK
> Please Note:
> In some cases, Microsoft might mention that the add-on is not installed and ask if you want to install it. Select Yes and let it run through the installation. When it is finished, you will not get a confirmation, but the installation window will be gone.
> let me know if the problem solved or ??


ray:THIS WORKED!! Everyone needs to know that this is THE fix. Perfect. Thank you so much. So easy...wish Microsoft would just have this feature defaulted on. You're the best! Thanks again. Much appreciated.


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## knuckleheadTech

rahul.gandhi you are the man. I know this is an older thread but I have to give credit where is it due.

I have entered your fix and a link to this thread in our IT ticket database with the appropriate credit given. Thanks


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## alanterrill

I'm having the exact problem as described at the top of this thread. I know its cause -the Brother P-touch add-in for Excel . After loading this software to three PCs all of them fail to open Excel documents until the minimise is clicked. All the solutions listed above ahve failed to work. Any further thoughts? All PCs are running Office 2007.


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## collinf

alanterrill said:


> I'm having the exact problem as described at the top of this thread. I know its cause -the Brother P-touch add-in for Excel . After loading this software to three PCs all of them fail to open Excel documents until the minimise is clicked. All the solutions listed above ahve failed to work. Any further thoughts? All PCs are running Office 2007.


Alan

I have literally just solved exactly the same problem with Excel 2007 and the Brother p-touch addin. Rahul's fix at post 16 fixed the problem with the spreadsheet not opening.

It didn't fix the closing problem, but I told the user to double click the windows button at the top left rather than the X at top right. Simples!

Thanks Rahul, your fix is much appreciated!

Collin


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## lantrix

rahul.gandhi said:


> There is a very simple fix for this.
> Please Note:
> In some cases, Microsoft might mention that the add-on is not installed and ask if you want to install it. Select Yes and let it run through the installation. When it is finished, you will not get a confirmation, but the installation window will be gone.
> let me know if the problem solved or ??


Yes - Thanks Rahul. This fixed this issue for us in Excel immediately. This was on a fresh install of Office 2007 Pro Plus, and it occured only in a subset of users. I'm not sure why this add-on was missed in their installation.

However it worked perfectly (after trying all the others). Thanks again!

-- Lantrix


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## Mendem

Well this post has been dead for a while but I just wanted to let people know that I found this while looking for a solution to the same excel issue people above were experiencing. I did try baregan's solution and unfortunately I ended up in the same boat as some of the others, in that it really did seem to make things worse, however I would like to say thank you to Rahul, this solution worked perfectly for me and unlike robaki I have suffered no adverse affects.


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