Excel 2010 / 2013 conflict with embedded spreadsheets?

[Grumpy88]

Hi.

Need some advice please. I have a Word document that contains numerous embedded Excel spreadsheets. When I try to edit the content of these embedded spreadsheets, I get the error message "The program used to create this object is Excel. That program is either not installed on your computer or it is not responding. To edit this object, install Excel or ensure that any dialog boxes are closed."

Obviously do have Excel installed. I also get the message whether or not Excel is open, and whether or not any dialogue boxes are open in it.

I suspect that it may be a conflict between the 2010 and 2013 versions of MS Office: the Word document concerned was originally a 2013-version doc, containing 2013-version Excel spreadsheets, and everything worked fine. However, recently I had to uninstall Office 2013 and revert to 2010 (which was also installed all along), and now I get the above-mentioned issue. Interestingly, I created a new spreadsheet in Excel 2010 and embedded it into the (now 2010) Word document, and was then able to open and edit that specific spreadsheet without problems (both by double-clicking it, or by right-clicking and choosing "Worksheet Object / Open"). None of the other embedded spreadsheets are co-operating though. In addition, if I work on the Word doc on another PC that does have Office 2013, there is no problem either.

I can't understand why two versions of Office should conflict with each other, as 2013 docs are supposed to be backwards-compatible in my understanding. Any theories / advice please (other than reinstalling Office 2013 on my PC)?

Thanks!

 

[Grumpy88]

Update: When I now repeated the above tactic of recreating one of the embedded spreadsheets in Excel 2010 and then using it to replace the non-functioning original, the second new spreadsheet displayed the error message "The server application, source file, or item cannot be found. Make sure the application is properly installed, and that it has not been deleted, moved, renamed, or blocked by policy."

Once I click OK to remove the error message, the embedded spreadsheet loses its functionality - double-clicking it has no effect, and the right-click menu no longer offers a "Worksheet Object" option. However, the first spreadsheet retains full editable functionality.

Weird.

 

[bobhc]

They are embedded in the word, and as such update from excel, do your data updating in excel and let word update from there.


.

 

[Grumpy88]

Thanks.

However, the problem with that approach is that there is no way to get the data into Excel to edit. These are not saved Excel spreadsheets that are then embedded into Word, but rather tables of data that have been drawn up in Excel and then pasted into Word for reporting purposes. As there are literally hundreds of them, I cannot practically-speaking save them all as independent Excel docs before embedding them in Word - it would be an admin nightmare! Hence the fact that they are pasted into the Word report as functional spreadsheets (or at least they were functional), such that any updates can be made then and there.

 

[Grumpy88]

The ideas seem to have dried up!

Not to worry - just a final postscript from my part: I opened the Word doc in another installation of Office 2013, and was able to edit the embedded Excel spreadsheets perfectly once more. Seems as though a doc created in 2013 doesn't always retain full backward compatability when used in 2010 thereafter. Lesson learned, and a heads-up to everyone else!