XL97: Errors When Trying to Make Office Assistant Visible

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Office 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you open a Microsoft Excel workbook in Microsoft Internet Explorer, you may receive one or more of the following error messages:

   Run-time error '-2147467259 (80004005)':
   Operation cannot be performed when the application is inactive.

   -or-

   Microsoft Excel is waiting for another application to complete an OLE
   action.

   -or-

   EXCEL caused an invalid page fault in module KERNEL32.DLL at
   014f:bff9a141.

   -or-

   EXCEL caused an invalid page fault in module VBA332.DLL at
   014f:65155893.

Or, when you click "Add From File" on the Section menu in Microsoft Office Binder 97 and add a Microsoft Excel workbook to a binder, Microsoft Office Binder 97 stops responding.

CAUSE

This will occur if the following conditions are true:

• The workbook contains a Workbook_Open macro.

      -and-
  

• The Workbook_Open macro contains a command to make the Office Assistant window visible.

      -and-
  

• Microsoft Excel 97 is not currently running.

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides examples of Visual Basic for Applications procedures for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. The Visual Basic procedures in this article are provided 'as is' and Microsoft does not guarantee that they can be used in all situations. While Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular macro, they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality, nor will they help you construct macros to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to consult one of the Microsoft Solution Providers. Solution Providers offer a wide range of fee-based services, including creating custom macros. For more information about Microsoft Solution Providers, call Microsoft Customer Information Service at (800) 426-9400.

If this problem occurs, you can use the OnTime method to delay making the Office Assistant visible. By delaying the process, you can prevent the problem from occurring.

To do this, follow the steps below:

1. In the Visual Basic Editor, activate the ThisWorkbook (Code) window. (In the Project Explorer window, click ThisWorkbook and then click Code on the View menu.)

2. In the ThisWorkbook (Code) window, enter the following code:

      Sub Workbook_Open()
         Application.OnTime Now + TimeValue("00:00:15"), "ShowAssistant"
      End Sub
   
   

3. Click Module on the Insert menu.

4. In this module sheet, enter the following code:

      Sub ShowAssistant()
         Application.Assistant.Visible = True
      End Sub
   
   

5. Save and close your file.

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.

MORE INFORMATION

In Microsoft Excel 97, workbooks can contain a "Workbook_Open" macro. This macro is stored in the ThisWorkbook (Code) window for a workbook and runs automatically when the workbook is opened.

If a Workbook_Open macro contains a command to display the Office Assistant window:

   Application.Assistant.Visible = True