Office 2007 Excel Grey Screen

[wagraphics]

I have a user that is having troubles with MS Office 2007. We just recently upgraded from 2003 and the issue just started happening after this. The issue is, when she opens an excel document by double clicking it in the explorer, it opens excel, but no workbook. If she clicks open and browses to the workbook while excel is open, it will open fine. Any idea on why this is?

 

[Stella740pl]

Most likely, you need to make adjustments in your explorer - it doesn't sound like it's an Office problem.

Be very careful if you have never done it before.

While in explorer, open menu Tools->Folder Options->File Types. Find .XLS extension in the list and press button "Advanced" (this is for Windows XP, other versions may have slightly different setup). Is Open the bolded (default) option? If not, make it so. Then navigate to it and press "Edit" button. What do you see? Make sure that application that is attached to that extension is indeed you current version of Excel, and that DDE Message is [open("%1")]. If it is not, what's in there? Something similar, or nothing at all?

 

[wagraphics]

Mind you I'm doing this in office 2007 on Windows XP Pro.

Action:
&Open
Application used to perform action:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e
Use DDE:
Checked
DDE Message:
[open("%1")]
Application:
Excel
DDE Application Not Running:
Topic:
system

 

[ck1999]

Are the files you trying to open xls files or xlsx or xlsm? You may want to check the same for these extensions as well.

ck1999

 

[AnotherHiggins]

See this MS Knowledge Base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;211494&Product=xlw

In short:

[tab]1. In Microsoft Office Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Excel Options.
[tab]2. Click Advanced, and then click to clear the Ignore other applications check box in the General area.
[tab]3. Click OK.


[tab]1. In Microsoft Office Excel 2003 or earlier versions of Excel click Options, on the Tools menu.
[tab]2. Click the General tab.
[tab]3. Click to clear the Ignore other applications check box, and then click OK.

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

Help us help you. Please read FAQ 181-2886 before posting.

 

[wagraphics]

Its in the office 2007 version, however that checkbox is already unchecked, assuming you mean "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)", as thats the only "Ignore" option I have.

The user is trying to open older documents created in xls2003 so it is infact .xls

 

[wagraphics]

Also .. Just noticed if I open a document from explorer, after it is loaded to the gray screen, if I minimize it, the document will instantly pop back up with my data as it should.

 

[AnotherHiggins]

I don't have 2007, but I think that is not the correct option to uncheck.

"Ignore other applications" is what's written in Microsoft KnowledgeBase. Googling on that term along with "Excel 2007" returns hits to many other sites that also use that phrasing without "... that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)".

Just to be sure, did you do the following?

Office Button > Excel Options > Advanced > General section then uncheck Ignore other applications


[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

Help us help you. Please read FAQ 181-2886 before posting.

 

[wagraphics]

That option was not checked if it is the same as I mentioned before. There is no option to "Ignore other applications", only "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)".

 

[ck1999]

Are the sheets minimized?

ck1999

 

[AnotherHiggins]

I take that back. I just found another site that has a picture of the Excel Options dialog box.

Are you getting any error messages?

Here are some other MS KB articles I found that might apply:

"Cannot find the file" error message when you try to open a workbook by double-clicking the .xls file

You receive a "File Not Found" error message in Excel when you open a file by double-clicking the file name

You cannot open Excel files in Windows Explorer after you use the Text Import Wizard to open a text file

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

Help us help you. Please read FAQ 181-2886 before posting.

 

[wagraphics]

As the user told me, When she double clicks on the icon for her document, it loads with nothing, but if she minimizes the whole program it pops up and shows her information. I also found that if she has MS Excel open before double clicking the document, it will load as a full screened document with all data being displayed. I also just found out this is the case with 3 of my other users as well. We recently just updated 70 users to office 2007 and so far only 4 have had this issue.

 

[wagraphics]

There are no error messages, just a non loading workbook.

 

[ck1999]

If the file is minimized when saved then you only get a icon on the bottom of the grey excel window? Does she see anything there?

ck1999

 

[wagraphics]

I am currently remoted into the machine, and this is not the case. I also tried re-saving the document as it was open and it still continues to do the same thing.

 

[Skarlok]

**Bump**

Any solution to this as one of my users is experiencing this as well.

 

[Codrus]

We have run into something similar with Excel 2007 documents saved as Excel 2003 documents. The only workaround that we have found is to have the user click Window then New Window and the document will appear. Unfortunately, the only permanent fix that we have found to date is to upgrade to Excel 2007.

 

[theo1881]

seen this with some excel 2007 installs, get an error message rgarding system resources, excel is partially displayed, minimize excel and maximize and all ok.

have you upgraded to sp1 ?

how much memory are the pcs having problems got ?

Laters, phat, headshape

 

[xlhelp]

This is a very well known bug. No real positive solution.

A few things to try:

Change Application used to perform action:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e
to
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" "%1"

Then,

check "Ignore other applications check box"; Close Excel; uncheck "Ignore other applications check box"; Close Excel; unregister Excel and Re-register Excel.

If that doesn't work, wait till MS comes out with a patch. I wouldn't hold my breath on it though. This problem has been around for a while. Minimize/Maximize works.


Vita Brevis