Trouble opening .xls files

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frank
  • Start date Start date
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Frank

I have heaps of .xls files but now Excel has difficulty
opening files that have spaces in the file name/path.
Example: - If I try to open an xls with the path
C:\documents and settings\f arthur\my documents\spread
sheet.xls I start recieving the following: - can't find
file name "C:\documents" I then retry and recieve can't
find filename "C:\documents and" it does this all the way
through the spaces till it gets to the file
extension .xls and only then opens it.

I can't think of anything more to try and have many files
to rename without spaces :o( does anyone know what's
happened here and how to fix?

Thanks,

Frank.
 
Your XLS file association is messed up. The easiest way to fix it is to run
"Excel /regserver" (w/o quotes) from Start->Run. Note there is a space
before the slash. Excel s/b closed at the time.
 
In Excel

Go to Tools Options General and uncheck Ignore Other Applications


: I have heaps of .xls files but now Excel has difficulty
: opening files that have spaces in the file name/path.
: Example: - If I try to open an xls with the path
: C:\documents and settings\f arthur\my documents\spread
: sheet.xls I start recieving the following: - can't find
: file name "C:\documents" I then retry and recieve can't
: find filename "C:\documents and" it does this all the way
: through the spaces till it gets to the file
: extension .xls and only then opens it.
:
: I can't think of anything more to try and have many files
: to rename without spaces :o( does anyone know what's
: happened here and how to fix?
:
: Thanks,
:
: Frank.
 
For the record, Ignore Other Applications has nothing to do with the problem
Frank reported. When Ignore Other Applications is selected Excel does not
try to open the file. In Frank's case Excel tried to open the wrong file
because "Use DDE" was not part of the file association. As I said, running
Excel /regserver is the easiest way to fix this.
 
Jim, I have the same problem, and Excel /reserver did not fix it. What else
could it be?
 
I've never understood which one works and which one doesn't. I haven't
performed an exhaustive study, but I would have guessed that it was close to
47.5% for each and 5% where neither worked. (give or take 38.764% <bg>.)

In fact, in a post I just read today (and it sounds like Frank's problem, too):

Subject:
Re: XLS file fails to open
Date:
Thu, 31 Jul 2003 16:47:38 -0700
From:
"Paul Schnitzler" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.excel.misc
References:
1 , 2




Dave, Thank you. Regserver didn't work but the Options
switch did. Most grateful!
Paul

-----Original Message-----
Sometimes one of these will fix your problem:

Close Excel and
Start|Run
excel.exe /regserver

The /regserver stuff resets the windows registry to excel's factory defaults.

An alternative might be to do:
Try Tools|Options|General|Ignore other applications (uncheck it)



--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)
.
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