Unable to Activate Source Program for Embedded Object

• Microsoft Word for Windows versions 2.0, 2.0a, 2.0a-CD, 2.0b, 2.0c, 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
• Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 5.0
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

In Microsoft Word for Windows, if you close a document before you save it and that document is paste linked to a Microsoft Excel for Windows worksheet, when you return to Microsoft Excel and attempt to update the paste-linked information, you receive one of the following error messages:

   Unable to activate source application for embedded object.

   -or-

   Cannot start the source application for this object.

   -or-

   Word cannot edit the Microsoft Excel Worksheet

MORE INFORMATION

When you use Word for Windows version 2.0 as an OLE server, Word creates a bookmark for the link. If you don't save your changes, the bookmark no longer exists; therefore, Microsoft Excel (or any other client application with such a link) fails and displays the above error message. If you close the server document without saving, Word does not warn you that a link with another document exists.

If you save changes when you close the Word server document, no problem or error message occurs in the client application. The error message occurs only if a client application attempts to update or activate a linked object from a Word document that was closed but not saved.

Microsoft is researching this problem and will post new information here as it becomes available.