Excel Opens Without Displaying Workbook

If you are in a program such as Microsoft Mail or Windows Explorer (not in Microsoft Excel) and you double-click a Microsoft Excel document to open it, Microsoft Excel starts, but the file may fail to open.

In Microsoft Excel 7.0 for Windows 95, you may receive the following error message:

When you double-click the file, Microsoft Windows attempts to initiate a dynamic data exchange (DDE) channel to Microsoft Excel. Windows then attempts to send DDE commands to open the clicked file. However, if Microsoft Excel is set to ignore DDE commands, the file will not open.

To resolve this problem, if you are using Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 5.0, Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. In the Options dialog box, click the General tab.
3. Click to clear the Ignore Other Applications check box.
4. Click OK.

If you are using Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 4.0, use the following steps:

1. On the Options menu, click Workspace.
2. Click to clear the Ignore Remote Requests check box.
3. Click OK.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: