Not sure if this is an Excel problem or a more generic Windows problem, but thought I'd post here first.

Have a number of users who are complaining that they cannot open an Excel file on our company's intranet (but some of their colleagues can). When they click on the link, they get the normal Open/Save/Cancel dialog box and if they choose Open, Excel starts but it just shows what looks like a blank spreadsheet. The only clue that it is not a new workbook is that the title bar at the top does show the correct file name, the worksheet is completely white (row and column numbers appear, but there are no gridlines, like every cell has been coloured white), plus the only tab at the bottom of the screen has the same name as the file - which is weird, because the actual spreadsheet should have four tabs and none of them are named after the filename.

However, if they choose the Save option from the dialog box and save the file to their desktop, then open it from there, the spreadsheet opens fine. That is obviously a good workaround, but these users want to see the issue fixed permanently as it seems to be affecting more people.

The only other things I've noticed are that when the Open/Save/Cancel dialog box appears, it says the file is 75KB, but when you choose Open, the resulting file (according to File - Info - Properties in Excel) is only 3.5KB. Also, if you choose Save As from Excel, the default 'Save as type' for this file is *.htm, instead of *.xls as you'd expect - does this point to these PCs mistaking the spreadsheet for a web page possibly? When the file is saved to desktop, the file size is correct and Save As comes up with .xls as default.

Users are all using Windows 7 64-bit, Office 2010 64-bit and IE8 (our intranet doesn't work with anything newer), but the same goes for the users who don't have this problem. The file is .xls, not .xlsx, in case this makes a difference.

Any ideas?

Hi Steve,

Based on your description, my understanding is there is an excel file in your company intranet, but several users cannot open it correct, and this file is *.xls file. Could you tell me if issue only appeared in this particular file, or this issue appeared in all excel files?

This problem may occur if the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) check box in Excel options is selected.

When you double-click an Excel workbook in Windows Explorer, a dynamic data exchange (DDE) message is sent to Excel. This message instructs Excel to open the workbook that you double-clicked.

If you select the "Ignore" option, Excel ignores DDE messages that are sent to it by other programs. Therefore, the DDE message that is sent to Excel by Windows Explorer is ignored, and Excel does not open the workbook that you double-clicked.

To correct this setting, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the General tab.
3. Clear the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) check box, and then click OK.

As general methods to solve the issue, please read this article and try the methods:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2994633

And you said>> default 'Save as type' for this file is *.htm, instead of *.xls <<, I suppose if this issue might be caused by the special formatting in excel file. Please try to open a new Excel file and copy the whole content from the file in question, then check if it works fine.

If my understanding is incorrect, please you can be a bit more precise explain your requirement so that I can get more accurate solutions to this problem. Im glad to help and follow up your reply.

Hope its helpful.

Regards,

Hi George,

This is the only Excel file on our intranet that users have reported having trouble opening.

I've checked one of the users experiencing this problem and they did not have the DDE option ticked in Excel, so I am assuming that this is the same for all of them (it's also not ticked on my PC, but I didn't have the problem).

I've had a look through the link you provided, but most of the solutions seem to be for situations where Excel does not open a file at all (application opens to an empty screen) whereas the problem we have is that it does seem to open some sort of file, just one that doesn't have any information in it. Also the fact that they can open other Excel files on the intranet, or save this file to desktop and open it from there fine, suggests that doing things like repairing Office won't have much of an effect, but I'll give it a try anyway.

Just to give you an idea of what the user sees, I've attached a screenshot of what Excel opens - apologies for the language being in Japanese, but you can work out what we're seeing. You'll see what I said about the file name is in the bar at the top of the screen, so we know Excel is not opening a new blank file and that the gridlines are missing and there is just one tab at the bottom with the file name (which is not a tab name on the normal spreadsheet).

Hi Steve,

As you said this issue only appeared in only one Excel file. I find this Excel file is *.xls file, now I suggest you can try to convert this file to *.xlsx, or you can try to open a new Excel file and copy the whole content from the file in question, then recover the file in company intranet.

Try this method and check if it works for you. Im glad to help.

Hope its helpful.

Regards,

Hi George,

Got the person who uploaded the original file to the intranet to convert it to XLSX format, remove the XLS version and re-upload the new one. The affected users can now open it without a problem.

Strange that this is the solution though, as there are hundreds of Excel files on our intranet and about half are XLS and the rest are XLSX, but we haven't had a problem with any of the other files doing this. But if it's working, it's working!

Thanks,

Steve.