XL98: Excel Quits When You Save a Workbook with a Module

• Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

When you save a workbook that contains one or more module sheets, Microsoft Excel quits without saving the workbook, and you receive the following error message:

   The application "Microsoft Excel" has unexpectedly quit, because an
   error of type 2 has occured.

   You should save your work in other open applications and restart the
   computer.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if the workbook contains a module sheet with a name that contains an equal sign (=).

In Microsoft Excel 98, a module name can contain only alphabetic, numeric, and underscore characters; the equal sign character is not valid for a module name. However, earlier versions of Microsoft Excel allow module sheet names to contain equal signs. Microsoft Excel 98 successfully opens these files. However, when you attempt to save the workbook in the Microsoft Excel 98 file format, you receive an error message, and the workbook is not saved.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, change the name of the module sheet to a valid Microsoft Excel 98 module name before you save the file. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open the workbook.

2. Press ALT+F11 to switch to or start the Visual Basic Editor.

3. Click Project Explorer on the View menu to display the Project Explorer.

4. In the Project Explorer, double-click the Modules folder for the workbook.

5. Select the module that has an equal sign in its name and press F4 to display the Properties window for that module.

6. In the Properties window, change the name of the module so that it contains only valid characters. (Alphabetic, numeric, and underscores are valid.)

7. On the File menu, click "Close and Return to Microsoft Excel."

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.