Insert word docments into Excel spreadsheet - "Can not insert object" error

I regularly insert word and PDF documents into excel files. I recently began encountering an error message "cannot insert object" when attempting to insert some documents. I am using Excel 2010.

I follow the INSERT - OBJECT - CREATE FROM FILE -BROWSE (Select the file) - DISPLAY AS ICON - OK ; I am then getting the "Cannot insert object" message for some word and PDF documents. Anyone know why? Do you have a solution?

I cannot identify any differences in the documents it is rejecting? Most are created on my device and I would expect them to be compatible.

I don't do this much so I don't have a lot of experience debugging it, but usually it's caused by an ActiveX incompatibility. Grab the patch download if you don't have it / run the Office Repair utility; either of those will probably fix it.