User opens Word document. User double-clicks on an Excel table that has been 'embedded' inside Word. An error appears.

Symptom

Steps to reproduce:

1. Launch Word 2. Click "Insert - Object" 3. Choose 'Microsoft Excel Worksheet' 4. Click OK 5. Double-click on the table (that appears in Word)

• Notice how it successfully opens in Excel:

6. Save this file (for example as 'TEST.DOCX') 7. Close Word 8. Double-click on file 'TEST.DOCX' (to open in Word) 9. Double-click on the table (embedded in Word).

• An error appears. Error message:

Depending on the environment, slightly different errors may appear:

Example

1

• The program used to create this object is Excel. That program is either not installed on your computer or it is not responding. To edit this object, install Excel or ensure that any dialog boxes in Excel are closed.

Example

2

• Microsoft Word The server application, source file, or item cannot be found.

Make sure the application is properly installed, and that it has not been deleted, moved, renamed, or blocked by policy.

Example

3

Nothing happens:

Cause

Limitation (reference APAR PI89783) of third-party (Microsoft) software (Microsoft Excel) which is used in the Controller add-in architecture.

More Information:

IBM have investigated this issue,a nd have concluded that it is not directly caused by IBM (Controller) code. Instead, it is triggered by a limitation of Microsoft's Word program.

• Specifically, Word (with embedded Excel objects) does not release Excel when closing.
• This means that (with the current design of Microsoft Word) there is no method for IBM to modify its Controller code to solve the problem.

For more information about this, see third-party (Microsoft) discussion (link at the end of this Technote) where the comment is:

"When you close the Word doc with the embedded Excel it doesn't close the Excel instance, so Excel stays running in background in a hidden way. When you open that Word document again and you try to edit the embedded Excel you will get a message error because it is trying to run an additiona instance of Excel. So you need to go to your Task Administrator and close that Excel instance before. After this, Microsoft Word will let you edit that embedded Excel".

Environment

Controller 10.2.1 and later versions, which uses Microsoft COM (which triggers the problem).

This problem has been seen using the following versions of Microsoft Office:

• Office 2010
• Office 2013
• Office 2016

Resolving The Problem

Fix:

Await a future version of Microsoft Excel, which may contain a fix for this limitation.

Workaround:

Temporarily disable the Controller COM add-in.

Steps:

The steps vary slightly depending on the Excel version.

• The below steps are based on Excel 2013:

1. Launch Microsoft Excel

2. Click "File - Options":

3. Click section 'Add-ins':

4. Ensure that 'Manage' is set to 'COM Add-ins', and click 'Go':

5. Untick the box 'Cognos Controller Link for Microsoft Excel':

6. Click OK 7. Test.

Related Information

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