open .txt download in Excel 2007

[Carol Lengacher]

I upgraded to Office 2007 last week.

I download .txt files from several web sites on a regular basis and need
them to automatically open in Excel. After some fussing with the file
types, I had gotten this working with 2003. Nothing is making any difference
with 2007. File types lets me change the default program to Excel, but then
it does nothing when I try to open the file. And - it doesn't change the
application icon in explorer - it still shows notepad even though in the file
types window it shows excel.

If I right click on a .txt file and say "open with excel", it doesn't do
anything either.

I can open the exact same file by opening Excel first and then opening the
..txt file from inside Excel.

Help please! I can't go through a multi-step process every time I download
one of these files.

THANKS!

 

[Sheeloo]

In OPEN WITH dialog box try to browse to the Excel Directory under Program
Files and choose Excel.exe. Also click 'Always open with ...' checkbox.

I suspect that your earlier version of Excel is still there in the OPEN WITH
options.

Since the icon does not change in EXPLORER it is an OS issue... For some
reason it is not being able to associate txt type with Excel.

Try to rename it to CSV extension and see whether it opens.

 

[Carol Lengacher]

Thanks for the ideas.

Using the browse for program made no difference. Still just sits there.

Changing it to .csv made all the difference. The icon immediately changed
to Excel and it opened right up with a double-click.

Maybe it's an OS problem so I'll go post there as well...but suspect it is
something Excel install configured in the registry.

Thanks again.

 

[Sheeloo]

Since you are able to open txt files from within Excel it is highly unlikely
that it is an Excel problem. The OS is not able to call Excel properly when
you double click on a txt file.

Since txt files are usually associated with Notepad, the change has to be
made at the OS level.

Just to test you may change the extension to anything, say TST, try to
associate it to Excel. If this works then it is definitely not an Excel issue.

 

[Carol Lengacher]

Good idea for a final confirmation test. However, it seems to point to excel.

I created several new file types and associated them to Excel using
different click sequences (see below) none of them will open. But I can
change any of them to Word and they open right up.

 

[Sheeloo]

Looks like Excel did not register itself properly with the OS or you have OS
pointing to an earlier version of Excel.

One final test (do it after careful thought)... right-click an XLS or XLSX
file, choose Open With... and choose Excel... I am reasonable sure it will
behave the same way as it does for txt ...

To solve your problem...
Try to Unregister and Register Excel again...
See http://www.cpearson.com/excel/StartupErrors.aspx for details.