OL98: Unable to Double-click to Open an Excel Attachment

All attempts to open an Excel e-mail file attachment by double-clicking the file are unsuccessful.

If you double-click an Excel attachment from within an e-mail message, Excel starts and appears to stop responding without opening the worksheet. If you minimize Excel you see the following hidden error message: If you right-click the Excel attachment and then click Save As, to save it to your hard drive, it saves sucessfully. However, when you double-click the saved file to open it, you receive the following error message: If you attempt to open the file by clicking Open on the Excel File menu, the file opens.

To correct this problem, follow these steps:

1. Close the e-mail message.
2. Start Excel.
3. On the Tools menu, click Options.
4. Under the General tab, click to clear the ignore other applications check box, and then click OK.
5. Quit Excel.

Now you will be able to double-click the attachment to open it in Excel, and can save it to the hard disk drive.

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