Embedded Excel 2007 workbook in Word 2007 document won't open. "Excel is not installed" error.

Anonymous
2010-03-08T20:45:01+00:00

I've seen this same problem frequently on other message boards and there has never been a solution, so I'm hoping that Microsoft is aware of it (they should be) and can address it definitively.

I have a Word 2007 document with an embedded Excel 2007 spreadsheet.  When I attempt to open the spreadsheet I get the message: "The program used to create this object is Excel.  That program is not installed on your computer. To edit this object, you must install a program that can open the object.".  Excel is in fact installed.  If I have Excel closed when I attempt to open the embedded spreadsheet then Excel actually opens, but then it does not open the embedded workbook and Word immediately gives the above message after Excel opens.

This is the same problem as is addressed in KB article 960806, except that I do not have "SQL Server 2008 Data Mining Add-ins for Office 2007" installed

I have run MS Office Diagnostics and no errors were reported. 

I have "Repaired" the installation from add/remove programs.  After I did this the embedded workbook appeared as a picture in the document and I couldn't even attempt to open it.

I have tried deselecting "ignore DDE" in Excel Options > Advanced > General

I have tried converting the embedding object to a binary object and back again.

The embedded workbook is a macro-enabled workbook, I don't know if it also happens for non-macro-enabled workbooks.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2012-02-11T04:22:08+00:00

Had the same issue; disabling Goodle Cloud Connect add-in in both Word and Excel solved it for me. It might help to try disabling all the installed add-ins.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-08-22T12:33:33+00:00

    After reading all the suggestions, And I have tested many of them. I enden up with using the original Word 2003 templates. And use them in Compatibillity Mode in Word 2007. And wait for a final sulution from Microsoft. The big question is how it would behavour in Word 2010. Does anybody have any experience with this?

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-07-13T13:39:33+00:00

    I have found a work around.  I had a copy of the sheet so deleted the errored embeded excel and instead of inserting it as an object dragged and dropped the excel sheet in the word document.  Converted to excel icon and activated it as excel sheet and it works.

    The drag and dropped excel workbooks work but if I insert the excel workbook  as an object it only works till the word document is not closed.  The moment it is closed and opened  inserted object doesnt work  and shows as unknown object. 

    Copying and pasting the unknown object in outlook doesn't change the behaviour of the excel sheet.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-06-28T14:21:51+00:00

    I've found a new work around for the issue with embedded spreadsheet in MS Word 2007.

    1. Find the spreadsheet that is generating the error message
    2. Copy paste the entire original document into a new word document and save it as a 97-2003 Word document
    3. Copy the errored spreadsheet into a new email message in Outlook
    4. Insert a new blank spreadsheet in the new 97-2003 version of your original document

                 -Make sure the new blank spreadsheet you are inserting is a 97-2003 Excel Worksheet

    1. Copy the contents of the spreadsheet you opened in Outlook

                 -DO NOT copy the spreadsheet object in Outlook, DO copy the contents of the spreadsheet

    1. Paste the contents of the original spreadsheet into the new blank spreadsheet you inserted into the 97-2003 version of the original document

    Note: Some formatting may be lost, as well as some columns and rows may be added to the spreadsheet.  I've read over these forums for a fix to the documents.  Converting a embedded spreadsheet to binary tended to turn the spreadsheet object into a picture losing ALL operability of the spreadsheet.

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