The Microsoft Excel Support Team Blog

Update 8/29/2017: License Errors for MSCOMCTL.OCX After July/August 2017 Update of Office 365 ProPlus

UPDATE: This issue is resolved. Scroll down to see the Resolution section. Problem: Current Channel...

Author: Ann H - Msft Date: 08/22/2017

"Do you want to download the converter?" when you try to open a file in Excel, Word or PowerPoint KB Article

Hello, this is Laura from the content team from Microsoft. We are seeing a lot of traffic to this KB...

Author: Laura Holzwarth-Struck [MSFT] Date: 11/02/2016

Update 8/9/2016: Excel Workbooks may not open after installing MS16-088

UPDATE: This issue is resolved, scroll to the bottom to see the Resolution Section in todays update....

Author: Laura Holzwarth-Struck [MSFT] Date: 07/22/2016

Excel 2013 and Excel 2016 Large Address Aware Updates

Improvements have been made to Excel 2013 and Excel 2016 applications that may help alleviate issues...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 06/07/2016

Changes in Office 2016 for Windows

An article is now available listing changes made to Office 2016 for Windows. While there are some...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 04/12/2016

Excel 2016 re-enabled after installing KB3114520

It's been found that users that have set Excel 2016 as not available via the Office Customization...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 03/10/2016

"We couldn't get data from the external source" refreshing data from SQL Server in Excel

Have you ever experienced an issue where you are working in an Excel file, connected without a...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 02/29/2016

Excel 2016 add-in "Inquire" will not load

It's been reported that after applying January updates for Excel 2016, the Inquire add-in is not...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 01/29/2016

Error launching Office applications after January updates

It's been reported that after applying January 2016 update (KB 3114506), customers are...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 01/28/2016

Office applications crash when opening files from Outlook in Protected View on Windows 10

It's been reported that after upgrading to Windows 10, when opening Office files from Outlook...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 01/20/2016

Form Controls stop working after December 2014 Updates (Updated March 10, 2015)

For some users, Form Controls (FM20.dll) are no longer working as expected after installing MS14-082...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 12/22/2015

Your changes could not be saved to ‘filename.xlsm’ because of a sharing violation. Try saving to a different file.

Guest Blogger: Dustin Yonker It has come to our attention of a potentially new issue where users...

Author: Laura Holzwarth-Struck [MSFT] Date: 09/04/2015

Blocked access to files with Windows 10

This is not new. But after upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1, I found that when trying to...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 08/19/2015

ODBC drivers that are compatible with Excel for Mac 2011 and 2016

Using Excel for MAC and experiencing an error similar to below? You may need to install the specific...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 08/18/2015

Office documents may error when opened after a Windows 10 upgrade

If you have upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10, you may find that some of your Office 2013...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 08/06/2015

Excel 2013 32-bit Performance Articles Released

After you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2013, you experience one or more of the following symptoms:...

Author: Laura Holzwarth-Struck [MSFT] Date: 07/07/2015

Form Controls are no longer supported outside of Microsoft Office

After installing the March 2015 updates for Office 2007, Office 2010 or Office 2013, form controls...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 04/07/2015

Dynamics CRM files do not open in Excel 2013 as expected

If an Excel workbook in XML Spreadsheet format (*.xml) is stored as a UTF-16 Unicode text stream,...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 12/29/2014

Excel 2013 error connecting to .bism files "The handle is invalid"

After applying May 2014 Cumulative updates for Office 2013 Click-to-Run, an error occurs when...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 10/15/2014

HTML table cells may display incorrectly

Table cells may be displayed in the wrong location when opening large HTML files in Excel 2003,...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 09/10/2014

Excel print settings do not change when switching printers

Windows DevMode has a limitation of 32 characters. What this means is that printer names cannot be...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 08/15/2014

PowerPivot for Excel 2013 error when opening the Manage Window

We’ve had reports of an error when trying to open the PowerPivot for Excel 2013...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 06/30/2014

Microsoft Office error when opening if IE temporary file location is changed or blank

After editing the Internet Explorer settings via group policy, some users are experiencing errors...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 06/17/2014

Stuff you wish Excel 2013 had – and find out that it does!

As I read through the feedback on Excel 2013, it strikes me that many users are having a little...

Author: Anita [MSFT] Date: 05/29/2014

Slow saving of Office files to a network server using EFS

Symptoms If you use the Encrypting File System (EFS) to secure the Temporary Internet Files folder,...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 05/05/2014

Unable to open ISO Strict .xlsx files in Excel for iPad, Mac or iPhone

When opening an .xlsx file in Excel for iPad, Excel for Mac or Excel for iPhone, you receive an...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 04/15/2014

Unable to open Excel files from a SharePoint 2010 on an iPad

Guest Blogger: Harold Kless If you try to edit an Office file (Word, PowerPoint or Excel) from a...

Author: Laura Holzwarth-Struck [MSFT] Date: 03/27/2014

Excel 2013 PowerPivot or Power Map add-ins are not installed with MSP from Office Customization Tool

After installing Office 2013 with Service Pack 1 from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC)...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 03/27/2014

Office 2013 reports no internet connectivity with VPN connection

Issue While using a VPN connection with Office 2013, users have reported that they are unable to...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 03/24/2014

PowerPivot for Excel 2013 errors after October update KB 2825655

(Updated Dec 2013)After installing the October 2013 update (KB 2825655) for Excel 2013, PowerPivot...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 11/12/2013

Updated! Excel 2013 crashes when you attempt to scroll down the page

Hello everyone We have seen several reports of Excel crashing when you scroll down, even on a...

Author: Anita [MSFT] Date: 11/04/2013

All files stored on a drive or server share are corrupted and will not open

We are still seeing many reports globally that people are unable to open multiple Office Files...

Author: Laura Holzwarth-Struck [MSFT] Date: 10/23/2013

Excel 2013 Pivottable Select Multiple Items checkboxes disappear

(Updated Dec 2013) It has been reported that after applying the latest updates for Excel 2013, the...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 10/17/2013

Excel 2013 PowerPivot or PowerView add-ins are not available

We have had reports of the Microsoft Excel 2013 PowerPivot or PowerView add-ins not loading in the...

Author: Amber Me - MSFT Date: 10/16/2013

Updated 9/11 - "Excel cannot open the file [filename] because the file format or file extension is not valid." opening Office files

There is currently an ongoing situation where users may encounter an error when trying to open...

Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 09/07/2013

Absolute Structured Referencing - A Nifty Little Trick

Hi Everyone, One of our MVPs brought a tutorial on ExcelCampus...

Author: Anita [MSFT] Date: 08/08/2013

Text and icon for embedded Office document disappears in Excel

When you embed another Excel file into an Excel 2007 or 2010 workbook, choosing only to show the...

Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 06/28/2013

Excel Crashes When You Enter Data in a Cell

We want to bring an emerging issue to your attention. We have found that in certain circumstances,...

Author: Anita [MSFT] Date: 05/07/2013

How to Troubleshoot Memory Errors in Excel; "Available Resources", "Out of Memory", "System Resources"

Thanks for the feedback the “available resources” post! We realized that many people are...

Author: Laura Holzwarth-Struck [MSFT] Date: 04/19/2013

Office 2013 VBA component stops functioning

We are seeing a few cases where the VBA component of the Office 2013 apps stop functioning. The...

Author: Laura Holzwarth-Struck [MSFT] Date: 04/11/2013

Problem Reopening Excel 2013 PivotTable Workbooks

We’ve had a few reports recently from people who have built new PivotTables in Excel 2013, and...

Author: Anita [MSFT] Date: 03/22/2013

How to: Use the Open XML SDK 2.0 in Visual Studio 2010 to create a simple Excel Spreadsheet (in C#)

There are plenty of examples out on the internet to use the Open XML SDK 2.0 and Visual Studio 2010...

Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 03/04/2013

Office 2013 SKU's needed for Power BI add-ins or to manipulate existing PowerPivot workbooks

When you try opening an Excel 2010 PowerPivot workbook in Excel 2013 you will find that you are...

Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 02/27/2013

Excel 2013 crashes after click-to-run install with DisplayLinkManager driver

After you install Excel 2013 or Office 2013 click-to-run and launch Excel 2013 it may crash, giving...

Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 02/07/2013

UPDATE: A Microsoft Knowledge Base article to help troubleshoot hangs and crashes in Excel

By Laura Holzwarth Troubleshooting crashes in Excel be difficult. To assist you in this endeavor, we...

Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 01/25/2013

"We couldn't free up space on the Clipboard. Another program might be using it right now." [Updated 2/1/2013]

By Anita Oakley Hello everyone, we want to bring an emerging issue to your attention today. We have...

Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 01/25/2013

Top 10 List of Performance Issues in Excel Workbooks

By Laura Holzwarth Performance issues are some of our biggest call generators. Users get frustrated...

Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 12/18/2012

The Excel Services and PowerPivot support blog is now live!

For those seeking out known issues with Excel Services and PowerPivot, a support blog for these...

Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 12/18/2012

"The file you are trying to open, [filename], is in a different format than specified by the file extension" error opening Excel files

When trying to open an Excel file, you may run into the following error: "The file you are trying to...

Author: Will Buffington [MSFT] Date: 12/04/2012

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