Frequently asked questions about Web queries in Excel

Web pages often contain information that is ideal for analysis in Microsoft Excel. For example, you can analyze stock quotes in Excel by using information that comes directly from a Web page. Depending on your needs, you can retrieve data that you can update or you can obtain data from a Web page and keep it static on the worksheet. This article lists some of the more frequently asked questions about how to use Web queries in Microsoft Excel , as well as the corresponding Microsoft Knowledge Base articles.

You can create or run a Web query to retrieve text or data on a Web page. Web queries are especially useful for retrieving data that is in tables or preformatted areas. (Tables are defined with the HTML [TABLE] tag; pre-formatted areas are often defined with the HTML [PRE] tag.) The retrieved data does not include pictures, such as Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) images, and does not include the contents of scripts.

Note If you retrieve data from a Web site, it is your responsibility to make sure that you use the data in compliance with any applicable terms and conditions governing the use of the data by the owner and/or operator of such Web site.

Troubleshooting

• Why can't I refresh my Web query?
  277596  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/277596/ ) Error message when you update a data query on your Excel worksheet: "This Web query returned no data"
• Why do the links that I click on in the Web query window open in a new browser window?
  277864  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/277864/ ) A Web page is opened in a new browser window when you click a link in the Web Query dialog box in Excel
• Why does my Web query return the wrong table?
  277899  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/277899/ ) Web query imports data from a table that you did not select
• How do I prevent the numbers in my Web queries from being formatted as dates?
  287027  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287027/ ) Web query converts numbers that contain hyphens into dates
• Why don't the table markers appear in the Web query dialog box for some Web pages?
  277612  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/277612/ ) Table markers do not appear when you perform a Web query on a secure site