The Microsoft Excel Support Team Blog
File "locked for editing by 'another user'" opening or saving file in Terminal Services environment
When trying to open or save an Excel file in a terminal services environment, you may encounter one...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 12/04/2012
Office 2013 returns an error inserting Scriptable ActiveX controls onto a worksheet
By Amber Mertes In Excel 2013, use of certain scriptable controls on a worksheet was deprecated. You...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 12/03/2012
ActiveX and form controls resize themselves when clicked or doing a print preview
When using ActiveX controls in Microsoft Excel 2010 you may find the controls are resizing...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 11/27/2012
Installations of Office 2013 may not allow COM add-ins to register successfully
By Amber Mertes With Office 2013, the Add-In Designer (msaddndr.dll) was removed. As a workaround,...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 11/16/2012
Pivot table stripped after "unreadable content" error encountered
Pivot tables can be difficult enough to work with by themselves, but it's even more frustrating when...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 11/15/2012
Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word does not appear in DCOM Configuration snap-in
There are times when you may want to configure permissions for Excel in the DCOM configuration tool....
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 11/12/2012
October Cumulative Update has been released
It ran a bit late, but the October cumulative update has been released for Office. Below are the...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 11/05/2012
Error installing PowerPivot - "This add-in requires Excel 2010"
When trying to install PowerPivot for Excel 2010 you may receive the following error message: Setup...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 10/19/2012
MS12-060 re-released
MS12-060 is a security update that was released Tuesday, August 14, 2012. This update replaced...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 09/26/2012
Excel crashes in VBE7.DLL running or enabling macro
When attempting to run VBA code in Excel, the following error may be thrown: "File not found". When...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 09/07/2012
"Unspecified Automation Error" after applying MS12-060 (updated 9/26)
This article applies to Word, Access, Excel and PowerPoint. MS12-060 is a security update that was...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 08/15/2012
"Date Modified" time stamps on shared Excel files stored on a network drive may not update correctly after saving and closing the file
By Dan Fox Recently, we have seen an issue with Excel 2007 where the time stamp on a shared Excel...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 08/10/2012
June cumulative updates have been released
For Excel 2007 - https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2712234 The update fixes the following problems:...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 06/28/2012
How to: Repurpose a button in Excel 2007 or 2010
Repurposing a button in Excel is incredibly easy these days. To repurpose a button means to redefine...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 06/18/2012
IRM error loading Excel 2010 workbook after installing MS12-030
After installing MS12-030, when you load an Excel workbook you may see the following error message:...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 06/08/2012
‘Export to Microsoft Excel’ from Internet Explorer 9 does not enter the URL in the Excel web query dialog
Written by Amber Mertes Internet Explorer 9 provides additional security that limits the...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 06/06/2012
You may encounter problems with links after applying MS12-030
After installing MS12-030 (https://support.microsoft.com/KB/2597166 for Excel 2010 or...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 05/25/2012
"Excel cannot complete this task with available resources" after installing MS12-030 (updated)
After you install MS12-030 (Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel could allow remote code execution -...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 05/22/2012
The Definitive 'Locked File' Post (updated 8/23/2017)
Any veteran of Excel has probably seen the error very similar to the one below: File in Use...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 05/14/2012
VB6 Control Security Update causes control to fail (updated)
By Laura Holzwarth A new security update (MS12-027) released, April 10 has been released that...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 04/11/2012
Paste Special functionality is limited in Office Applications (Fixed)
By Laura Holzwarth Update: Skype has released a new version of Click to Run...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 04/04/2012
"The information cannot be pasted because the copy area and the paste area are not the same size and shape"
When trying to paste data into Excel, you may run across this error. The most likely cause is that...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 03/14/2012
How To: Display Pivot Table methods and properties in VBA intellisense
When you are coding and use a compact method of referring to a pivot table such as:...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 02/16/2012
Excel 2007 charts missing elements after installing KB 2596596
After installing the fix from KB article 2596596 (https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2596596) you may...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 01/19/2012
How To: Writing Index, Match and Index, Match, Match formulas
Writing a formula in Excel can be tricky, especially if you plan on writing one that has a bit of...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 12/27/2011
Error performing web query - "Cannot download the information you requested"
Ever performed a web query in Excel? It's pretty easy. From the Data menu you click 'From Web' in...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 12/13/2011
The Long Road: Problems with hyperlinking Office Documents in Excel
When you create a hyperlink to another Office document in Excel 2007 or 2010 and click to follow...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 12/06/2011
Excel Crashing? Look at your COM add-ins first.
More than likely you or someone you know has experienced the pain and annoyance that is when Excel...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 11/21/2011
"Cannot download the information you requested" executing web query from Excel
Have you ever encountered this problem? When trying to pull data via a web query in Excel you get an...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 11/15/2011
How To: Show pivot table data in flat format
As a seasoned Excel user, you are no doubt familiar with Pivot Tables and how they work. (If not,...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 11/03/2011
October 2011 Cumulative Updates for Excel 2007 have been recalled
The hotfixes for the following updates as part of the October 2011 CU have been recalled. Two...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 11/03/2011
Excel 2010 - ActiveX controls resize or shift during or after print preview
Here's an interesting scenario. You have an Excel 2010 spreadsheet that contains multiple activeX...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 10/27/2011
How to: Automatically format Excel's track changes to look like Microsoft Word's track changes feature
If you have ever used the "Track Changes" feature in Microsoft Word, then you know that the changes...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 10/26/2011
October 2011 Cumulative Updates released
The Cumulative Updates (CUs) for October 2011 have been released. Here is a breakdown of the CUs...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 10/26/2011
SP3 for Office 2007 is released, plus some important information about the August/October 2011 CUs.
On October 25, Microsoft released Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 3. KB Article 2591039...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 10/26/2011
Chart only plots one data point after installing MS11-072
In addition to the two other side effects to installing MS11-072...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 10/03/2011
Links in Excel are broken, error on file save, after applying security update MS11-072
There are a couple of new problems that we are seeing on some machines after installing MS11-072: an...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 09/28/2011
How can I apply KB Article 280680 to Office 2007/2010?
In the beginning, there was KB Article 218153 - "Error message when clicking hyperlink in Office:...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 09/15/2011
Right clicking Excel icon in the task bar no longer shows recent files
If you're like me, you've got your Excel 2007 or 2010 icon pinned to the Windows 7 task bar. It's no...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 09/14/2011
What can cause slow copy and paste in Excel?
Normally copy/paste operations in Excel are pretty instantaneous. You copy data from one place and...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 09/08/2011
Office 2010 Service Pack 1 has been released
There are fixes aplenty for Excel in Office 2010 Service Pack 1. You can download the patch from...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 06/30/2011
February Cumulative Update for Excel Released
The cumulative update for Office 2007 and Office 2010 for February 2011 has been released! These...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 03/08/2011
ActiveX controls showing a big red X on my workbook
If you've ever used ActiveX controls on your Excel Spreadsheet you may have run into the problem of...
Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 03/08/2011