Embedded Spreadsheets problem

Question

I am in an enterprise environment running Microsoft Office 365. For some Microsoft Office users when double clicking on an Embedded Spreadsheet in Word, produces and 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 in Excel are closed." I can confirm that excel is installed and works fine. I have run an online repair, I have uninstalled and reinstalled office, I have used Office Scrub and reinstalled. I briefly got it to work one time then it stopped working again within minutes. I have tried using an older version of office which produced the same results. There are multiple people with this issue. What's odd is there are others who can open the Word document and double clicking on the embedded spreadsheet it opens fine. I have verified the latest patch for Office and windows are applied on both working systems and non working systems. The Trust center settings in both Word and Excel are set the same for non-working systems and working systems. I have verified the External Content settings within Trust Center.

Any further suggestions other than rebuilding the system which seems to be my only course of action?

Microsoft® Word for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2312 Build 16.0.17126.20190)

Answer 1

Hi Daryl,

Based on my search, please check the following points, and then share the feedback with us.

1. Please try the following steps, then check again.

Close and quit Excel.

Close the document in Word and run Task Manager.

Check if Microsoft Excel is running in the background. If so, please end it.

Reopen the document and check again.

2. Please ensure that the option "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)" is unticked in Excel via File> Options> Advanced> under General.
3. Please temporarily disable all COM add-ins in Excel

File> Options> Add-ins> choose "COM Add-ins" and click Go, then untick all add-ins in the dialog box. After that, please close and quit Excel, then check again.

If the problem still occurs, I would like to collect more information about the situation.

1. Please provide the Office product type.

Click File> Account, check the product name under Product Information.

2. For users who don't have this problem, are they using the same Office product and the same Office version?

We look forward to your response. Thanks for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

George | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

Switching user profiles appears to have worked.

Answer 3

Hi Daryl,

Thanks for posting back.

Please check the following points.

1. I would like to know how you uninstalled Office. Did you use the Microsoft 365 uninstall support tool (the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant)?

If not, I recommend you download and run the Microsoft 365 uninstall support tool to completely uninstall Office. After that, please reinstall Office and check again.

2. Please switch to another Windows user profile (if this device doesn’t have another Windows user profile, please add another account on this device, then switch to it), build a Word document, and test it. Check if the problem still occurs or not.

If the problem still occurs after trying the above points, to troubleshoot it further, I recommend you contact your admin/IT department and ask them to raise a support ticket via Microsoft 365 Admin Center> Support> New service request. That support team there will have the correct channel and resources to collect the log file from your side and find what exactly the reason has caused this issue.

Appreciate your understanding and patience.

Sincerely,

George | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 4

DDE is unchecked. Closing, restarting, and end task on excel did not change the error. Online repairing and clean remove using office scrub, and reinstalling office several times did not change anything. Disabled all add-ins, Also ran excel and word in safe mode. current word version is Microsoft® Word for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2312 Build 16.0.17126.20190). Same version on working systems.

Answer 5

Hi Daryl,

Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are glad to assist. We are looking into your situation and we will update the thread shortly.

Appreciate your patience and understanding and thank for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely,

George | Microsoft Community Moderator