XL97: Illegal Operation Closing File When VBE Is Visible

When you close Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x while a Microsoft Excel workbook is open, you may receive the following error message: If you click Details, you receive one of the following error messages:

This problem occurs when all of the following conditions are true:

• You view a Microsoft Excel workbook in Microsoft Internet Explorer. -and-
  
  
• You display the Visual Basic Editor, display any dialog box (for example, the References dialog box), and leave the dialog box visible on the screen. -and-
  
  
• You switch back to Microsoft Internet Explorer and close the workbook, by clicking Close on the File menu or by clicking the Close button in the upper-right corner of the window.

When you display the Visual Basic Editor, display a dialog box in the Visual Basic Editor, and then close the workbook in the Internet Explorer, the displayed dialog box prevents the Visual Basic Editor quitting. As a result, you receive one or more of the error messages that are described in this article.

To prevent this problem from occurring, close any visible dialog boxes in the Visual Basic Editor before you switch back to Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

A new features that is supported by Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x is the ability to view and edit Microsoft Excel workbooks directly in Microsoft Internet Explorer. When you do this, you can use almost all of the features in Microsoft Excel 97, including programming in the Visual Basic Editor.