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.

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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
    2014-01-24T17:44:00+00:00

    We are having this issue on computers that were upgraded to Windows 7--the embedded excel will not open--says the program is missing even though the program is installed. It opens fine on computers that were purchased with Windows 7 on them and running Office 2010. The file is a docx. When you right click on the upgraded computer to convert, we get the message detailed above: 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"  But if you open the file on the Windows 7 machine that wasn't upgraded, you can convert it to binary, macro-enabled, etc. Very weird.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-07-10T22:51:27+00:00

    Below I wrote the following ...

    I found that is I deleted C:\Users<my user name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART\PERSONAL.XLSB (personal workbook for personal macros) that I do not have the problem.

    This is for Office 2007 SP3 on Vista.

    Somebody wrote something else about a Google Cloud add-in ...

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-07-08T18:26:04+00:00

    I have this same problem and have been mining the internet for answers - what can be seen is that no one in the Microsoft "expert" community has been able to give one solid lucid explanation or solution to this issue...some of the resolutions seem like they would require a degree from a pedigreed universtiy to figure out how to even approach the solution...this issue with not being able to open an embedded spreadsheet in Word 2007 has been going on for years, you would think a known solution or article would address it, but all there seems to be us reigning confusion and a lack of any good answer...I like many of my peer users probably can accept something that does not work from the beginning, but it certainly is frustrating beyond belief that something that works just fine and is being used in every day work environment successfully JUST STOPS WORKING ALTOGETHER with no explanation why except for the usual CRYPTIC meaningless error message from Mother Microsoft.

    Here's an update for you - this thread is from 2011 - it is now mid 2013 and the issue still exists and is vexing the users of the software - we coudl all be dead and buried before anyone in the MS "expert" community comes to our rescue...

    sincerely

    my-embeeded-spreadsheet-still-won't-open

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-04-30T06:12:22+00:00

    i am using windows 8, i uninstalled office,restarted my pc, then i installed office again.it solved the problem

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