Can't edit Excel document in browser with macros

[Jan Harrison]

Hello,

A user is experiencing difficulty editing an Excel document when it is
opened from a browser. The document contains macros. The user is prompted to
enable or disable macros, she clicks "Enable", and then whenever she clicks
a cell, she is prompted to save the document. The message is, "The document
has been modified. Do you want to save changes?" So effectively, she can't
edit this document without constantly being asked to save. I get the message
when I click on a button.

No save message appears when the document is saved to the hard drive and
then edited in Excel. However, the company wants to make sure everyone is
using the latest copy, so they don't want to encourage people to save the
document to the hard drive first.

The document used to work correctly, but was changed...presumably when the
creator updated his computer? I am trying to get more details on that.

Thank you for any advice or help that can be provided.

Jan

 

[Dave Peterson]

This may not help, but maybe you could just stop excel from opening inside the
browser:

There's a setting in Windows that you can change.

In win98, I can do this:
Start Windows Explorer
View|Folder Options
File Types Tab
scroll down to MS Excel Worksheet
Select it
click the edit button
There's an option to "browse in same window". Uncheck it.

That's where you can toggle the "confirm open after download", too.

How to Configure Internet Explorer to Open Office
Documents in the Appropriate Office Program Instead of in Internet Explorer
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=162059

 

[Jan Harrison]

Thank you for the response. That might be our last resort, but the users
want the problem to be fixed and still be able to view the file in the
browser.

 

[Jan Harrison]

I have some more information about this problem. It's unrelated to
macros--the document actually doesn't contain macros, only an empty function
left in the code. Removing this doesn't stop the message from appearing.

The problem is related to clicking on hyperlinks. I have found other people
on the internet who have documented having this problem too, but no one has
answered their questions so I still don't have a solution. With this new
information, does anyone have any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Maybe this will help for the top portion:

http://contextures.com/xlfaqMac.html#NoMacros
(From Debra Dalgleish's site)

(I don't have a guess about the second problem.)

 

[Jan Harrison]

Thank you for the information. I should have clarified though--removing the
VBA code doesn't stop the "The document
has been modified. Do you want to save changes?" message from appearing. It
does stop the "Do you want to enable macros" message from appearing. I got
the macros part figured out.

To summarize the problem, it's now that when viewing an Excel document in a
browser, clicking on a hyperlink causes the message "The document has been
modified. Do you want to save changes?" to be displayed. I'm mentally
chalking this problem down to the ever-large category "inexplicable software
bugs that no one knows how to solve". I've seen some code to prevent the
worksheet from prompting the user to save...maybe I'll try that if nothing
else works.

Thanks,
Jan

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi Jan
you may have volatile functions in your file which are re-calculated on
opening the file -> the file is changed!

 

[Jan Harrison]

Thank you, Frank. This makes sense, except that the problem doesn't happen
when the file is opened in Excel...only when viewed in a browser.

 

[wanderso]

Jan:

I've faced the same issue with an excel file that contains hyperlink
to sheets within the same document and no macros.

The earlier suggestion (MS Kbase 162059) works but is unrealistic i
many situations depending on your I.T. restrictions (I.E. making
script to edit the registry) or too much work for the end-user t
accomplish if they are Senior Executives that are non-technical.

The solution I use is as follows. I use one solution for files that
am pushing out to a server in Europe; another for local servers in th
U.S. Either works

1) Zip the file and hyperlink to the zip file on your HTML page. Whe
the user clicks on the icon, they get another window where they ca
click on the excel file. The file then opens as normal (via excel).

2) Hyperlink on your HTML page to an NT (or other) fileshare folde
<example> \\wv-fs-01\dashboard The user then clicks on the link, a ne
windows explorer window opens up and they click on the excel icon. Th
file then works as normal.

A third solution is to place instructions for the users to right-clic
"save target as" and put the file on their desktop and then click i
from there. (Too many steps in my opinion).

I am unhappy with these solutions as they create one extra click fo
users, but unfortunately Microsoft is not willing to address thi
glaring flaw in their products.

In my case, the excel report is refreshed against live data nightly s
I wanted the least pain. It is used for Senior Execs and the fil
loads with a main page with multiple hyperlinks to excel sheets in th
document and a 'return to main menu' hyperlink at the top of each page
This allows one document to have 14 different standard 'slices' o
the information in a format that is not overwhelming to the user t
navigate. It also allows one portable document instead of multipl
links on an HTML page to different excel files. Finally, it avoids th
need to use any macros (thus avoiding any 'macro security warnings' i
the user's settingsa are set to 'high' in excel