Select the product you need help with

OL2000: Error Message "Can't open the object."

Article ID: 223467 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q223467

If you double-click a linked file from within an Outlook item, you may receive either of the following error messages:

Can't open the object. Linked object's source class has changed.

-or-

Can't open the object. Moniker cannot open file.

NOTE: Microsoft Office 2000 has built-in functionality that allows you to get more information about difficult-to-troubleshoot alerts or error messages. If you want to enable this functionality for this and other error messages in Microsoft Office 2000, please download the Microsoft Office 2000 Customizable Alerts file from the Microsoft Office Update Web site at the following address:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8FBEE1D3-C5BB-4A36-A2F7-DC63DE2A818C

(http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/office-2000-resource-kit/customizable-alerts-HA001138315.aspx)

NOTE: If you reached this article by clicking the Web Info button in an error message, you already have Customizable Alerts enabled.

This error is caused by differences in OLE registration between two different Microsoft Office versions.

Conflicting OLE Versions

The link points to a file created with an earlier version of one of the Microsoft Office products, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft PowerPoint. This error is caused by differences in OLE registration between the two versions.

To update the link, follow these steps:

Right-click the link, and click Properties on the shortcut menu.
On the Link tab, click Change Source.
Click to select the file, and then click OK and OK.
Double-click the link in the Outlook item.

The item opens in the current version of the Office program.

NOTE: This fix only works while the Outlook item is open. If you close and reopen the Outlook item, or send the message to another computer, you will receive the error message again.

Expand all | Collapse all