MS Office - Excel Please help!

BrightonLad

I wonder if any of you could help me here - i'm experiencing problems with Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003, which came on my Dell Dimension 4600 which i bought in dec.

I use outlook everyday, and word occasionally without any problems. I last used Excel in january, and have just tried to open a spreadsheet i created then.

When i tried, it came up with Installer and said i needed to install it. I have never Uninstalledf it!

Then it says "The feature you are trying to use is on a CD ROM or other removable disk that is not available. Insert Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003 and click OK"

I have not had to use the disk before - so why is it asking me now?

DVB_3

When Office 2003 is installed in typical (not full) configuration, some of the components are not installed, but instead flagged "install at first use". This message simply means that you tried to use a feature which is not a part of a standard installation. For instance, you could've used basic Excel before, but now tried to access an unusual spellchecker, etc.

Another possibility, of course, is that your installation might've simply become corrupted.

BrightonLad

Thanks for that, but the problem seems to be when i try to start up excel, either from "excel" in the start menu, or by clicking on a xls document in my documents.

Have just found out that i can get into excel if i open it whilst the error message from my previous attempt is still being displayed. i can then work on it as usual as long as the error message is there.

Something else i have now noticed is that in the start menu where i have my shortcuts to the 6 most recently used programs listed, i cannot click on them to open anything!

All is very strange. Any ideas?
I am going to restart my pc now to see if that helps. back in a minute!

DVB_3

Have you scanned your computer for viruses or malware recently? Sounds like file associations got corrupted.

BrightonLad

right! scanning now..... could take a while. I always have my anti virus running though.

I might go and get the disk it asks for, see where that takes me. Probably should have tried that first!

BrightonLad

Well would you believe it! I put the office cd rom in then tried to start it, whatever it got off there made it start up.

I closed excel again, then took the cd out, and now it starts up properly all on its own! and everything is working fine!

God knows why it didn't work all of a sudden, but thanks a lot for you advice, i suspect some file must have been corrupted somewhere so it got it back off the cd. (thats my theory anyway - i know nothing about home pcs!)

One more thing - do you recommend i should scan for viruses even though my anti virus is up to date and always running?

Still scanning now 25100 files scanned. Could be a long night!

Can now get back to what i was doing with that spreadsheet. Preparing for a job interview monday!

hey, thanks again!

DVB_3

Yes, I do. Most of the anti-viruses use different engines for real-time protection and full hdd scanning, so it's always a good idea to scan you hard drive once in a while (depending on your exposure).

Good luck with your interview.

Tony_H_3

If you have used Search & Destroy by SBYBOT (Excellent Utility) this removes the licencing part of Office 2003...... After each run of this utility I have to re load the Office CD. I'm too lazy to change the preferences in S&D to allow for Office 2003!! I meant i'm too busy :rolleyes: