Excel won't open the original document!!!

I need some help here.
At work, I need to use an excel sheet and I realized to my horror
(weirdly enough I was the first to notice) that if you opened the excel
sheet in "my recent documents", it would open the document with a small
"1" after its original name, but not the actual document. Apparently no
one before me had noticed the small number after the file name, and had
gone on saving half a dozen different excel sheets when there should be
only one!

I deleted all the files that weren't my original one but when I went to
"my recent documents" it would restore that deleted file if I
double-clicked on it. None of this happens if I open the file in Excel.

First I thought that maybe I had saved my document as a template, but
that wasn't so, neither is it a read-only. Yet each time I want to open
MY document in "my recent documents", Excel (and only Excel) opens a
copy of the document and not the real document. If this copy of my
document is open, and I select the file again from "my recent
documents", it will open yet ANOTHER copy of the document.

I have no idea what the problem could be...does anyone here?

I've never seen excel add a 1 to the filename (from xl95 to xl2003).

But I have seen email clients store attachments in temporary files with an
additional numbers following the file name.

Could it be that someone opened it from an attachment and not the original
workbook? Then the MRU list would be pointed to the file in this temporary
folder.

I like to put:
=cell("Filename",a1)
in an empty cell to see where the file really lives.

If none of this helps, you may want to share the version of excel you're using.
Maybe someone who has had that version has seen the problem and knows a
solution.


HannaBlack wrote:
>
> I need some help here.
> At work, I need to use an excel sheet and I realized to my horror
> (weirdly enough I was the first to notice) that if you opened the excel
> sheet in "my recent documents", it would open the document with a small
> "1" after its original name, but not the actual document. Apparently no
> one before me had noticed the small number after the file name, and had
> gone on saving half a dozen different excel sheets when there should be
> only one!
>
> I deleted all the files that weren't my original one but when I went to
> "my recent documents" it would restore that deleted file if I
> double-clicked on it. None of this happens if I open the file in Excel.
>
> First I thought that maybe I had saved my document as a template, but
> that wasn't so, neither is it a read-only. Yet each time I want to open
> MY document in "my recent documents", Excel (and only Excel) opens a
> copy of the document and not the real document. If this copy of my
> document is open, and I select the file again from "my recent
> documents", it will open yet ANOTHER copy of the document.
>
> I have no idea what the problem could be...does anyone here?

--

Dave Peterson

Dave Peterson wrote:
> I've never seen excel add a 1 to the filename (from xl95 to xl2003).
>
> But I have seen email clients store attachments in temporary files with an
> additional numbers following the file name.
>
> Could it be that someone opened it from an attachment and not the original
> workbook? Then the MRU list would be pointed to the file in this temporary
> folder.
>
> I like to put:
> =cell("Filename",a1)
> in an empty cell to see where the file really lives.
>
> If none of this helps, you may want to share the version of excel you're using.
> Maybe someone who has had that version has seen the problem and knows a
> solution.

Tx, I will try that tomorrow. Well, I think it's Excel 97 but I am not
sure. I asked someone who works in IT (who was in a big hurry) and they
also said they had never seen anything like that before...now I wonder
if it's a bug or something. That's interesting u say Excel doesn't
normally ad a 1 to a filename, perhaps it's more likely that it's not
an excel problem per se.
All I know is that this whole thingamajig is driving me insane!

One more thing...

If excel is treating the file like a template (*.xlt), then it will add a number
to the workbook name.

Kind of like when you create a new workbook, you'l see book1, book2, book3,
....but there won't be an extension shown in the titlebar. (Do you see the .xls
in the titlebar when you do a File|Open??)

Try that =cell("Filename",a1) business to see if it returns anything. (The file
has to be saved first for this to work.)

<<And you are saving the file as a normal workbook (*.xls), right????>>

If you are seeing new workbooks (excel/windows is treating it like a template),
then try this:

Close Excel and
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /unregserver
then
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /regserver

The /unregserver & /regserver stuff resets the windows registry to excel's
factory defaults.



HannaBlack wrote:
>
> Dave Peterson wrote:
> > I've never seen excel add a 1 to the filename (from xl95 to xl2003).
> >
> > But I have seen email clients store attachments in temporary files with an
> > additional numbers following the file name.
> >
> > Could it be that someone opened it from an attachment and not the original
> > workbook? Then the MRU list would be pointed to the file in this temporary
> > folder.
> >
> > I like to put:
> > =cell("Filename",a1)
> > in an empty cell to see where the file really lives.
> >
> > If none of this helps, you may want to share the version of excel you're using.
> > Maybe someone who has had that version has seen the problem and knows a
> > solution.
>
> Tx, I will try that tomorrow. Well, I think it's Excel 97 but I am not
> sure. I asked someone who works in IT (who was in a big hurry) and they
> also said they had never seen anything like that before...now I wonder
> if it's a bug or something. That's interesting u say Excel doesn't
> normally ad a 1 to a filename, perhaps it's more likely that it's not
> an excel problem per se.
> All I know is that this whole thingamajig is driving me insane!

--

Dave Peterson

>
> If you are seeing new workbooks (excel/windows is treating it like a template),
> then try this:
>
> Close Excel and
> Windows Start Button|Run
> excel /unregserver
> then
> Windows Start Button|Run
> excel /regserver
>
> The /unregserver & /regserver stuff resets the windows registry to excel's
> factory defaults.
>

Thanks so much, I reset the registry to factory defaults and it all
works fine now. Before fixing the problem, I had noticed that any .xls
files opened...even in Windows Explorer were only a copy with a little
1 after the file name. Still not sure how someone rigged excel to do
that though... but again, tx for the tip!

Who knows why windows loses those settings?

But one thing I would do is make sure that extensions are visible--either in
windows explorer or in the title bar in excel.

If you don't see the extensions, you can toggle that setting:

Open Windows Explorer
Tools|Folder Options|View tab
Scroll down just a bit and make sure "Hide extensions for known file types" is
not checked.

It should make it easier to know if you're working on a new workbook (based on a
template) or an existing workbook (*.xls).



HannaBlack wrote:
>
> >
> > If you are seeing new workbooks (excel/windows is treating it like a template),
> > then try this:
> >
> > Close Excel and
> > Windows Start Button|Run
> > excel /unregserver
> > then
> > Windows Start Button|Run
> > excel /regserver
> >
> > The /unregserver & /regserver stuff resets the windows registry to excel's
> > factory defaults.
> >
>
> Thanks so much, I reset the registry to factory defaults and it all
> works fine now. Before fixing the problem, I had noticed that any .xls
> files opened...even in Windows Explorer were only a copy with a little
> 1 after the file name. Still not sure how someone rigged excel to do
> that though... but again, tx for the tip!

--

Dave Peterson