XCLN: Error Opening .xls from Public Folder (167898)

SYMPTOMS

The problem described in this article occurs when you use a Microsoft Exchange Windows 95 client or Microsoft Outlook client and attempt to open a Microsoft Excel 7.0 spreadsheet, PowerPoint 7.0 presentation, or Word 97 document that has been posted to an Exchange public folder. The following error message will appear:

On Exchange 4.0 and 5.0 clients:

A problem occurred while working with, or connecting to, a
linked or embedded object or its source application.

On Outlook clients:

Outlook could not track the program used to open this
document. Any changes you make to the document will
not be saved to the original document.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, do one of the following:

Start Excel before you open the spreadsheet. Start Word before you open the document. Start PowerPoint before you open the presentation.

-or-
For Excel, remove the AutoSave Add-in. Start Excel. On the Tools menu, click Add-ins. Clear the AutoSave check box.
For Word, start the program. On the Tools menu, click Options, click the Save tab. Clear the Allow Background Saves check box.

-or-
For Excel:
1. Open the Excel file from another workstation.
2. Save the file as an Excel 5.0/95 worksheet.
3. Repost the new file to the public folder.
For Word:
1. Open the Word 97 file from another workstation.
2. Save the file in another format, for example, save it as a Word 6.0/95 document.
3. Repost the new file to the public folder.
For PowerPoint:
1. Open the PowerPoint presentation from another workstation.
2. Save the file in another format such as PowerPoint 95 or Rich Text Format.
3. Repost the new file to the public folder.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server, versions 4.0 and 5.0. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.