XL97: Error When Viewing a Web Page Containing a Microsoft Excel Workbook

When you view a Web page that contains a Microsoft Excel workbook in Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 3.x, you may receive the following error message: If you click Details, you receive one of the following error messages, possibly more than once:

This problem may occur when the following conditions are true:

• The Web page that contains the Microsoft Excel workbook uses Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) code similar to the following to load the workbook:

        <IFRAME SRC="http://myserver/test.xls" WIDTH=600 HEIGHT=400>
        </IFRAME>
  						

  -and-
  
  
• After you view the Web page in Microsoft Internet Explorer, you either proceed on to another Web page, or you return to the previously-viewed page by clicking the Back button on the toolbar. -and-
  
  
• You then return to the Web page that contains the Microsoft Excel workbook, either by clicking the Back button or the Forward button or by re-entering the URL for the Web page in the Address box.

To prevent this problem from occurring, do not redisplay a Web page that contains a Microsoft Excel workbook contained in an <IFRAME> tag. If you must redisplay the Web page, quit and restart Microsoft Internet Explorer, and then display the Web page.

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

In the HTML code, you can use the <IFRAME> tag to define a floating frame within a Web page. By specifying a source (SRC) argument that refers to a file you want to use, you can have floating frames contain HTML documents or other types of documents. This includes Microsoft Excel workbooks.

When you display a Microsoft Excel workbook in a floating frame, you may receive the error message mentioned in the "Symptoms" section if you redisplay the Web page that contains the floating frame.

For more information about other problems associated with floating frames and Microsoft Excel workbooks, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: