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Thread: Excel Addin Compatibility Problems with 2013

  1. #1

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    Excel Addin Compatibility Problems with 2013

    Hello All,

    I'm trying to get a third party Excel add in that was written for Excel 2003 to work with Excel 2013, and I'm having some problems. Basically I've tracked it all down to a single .DLL included with the add in that contains (I believe, being a DLL I can't say for 100% because I can't access the code) a single ActiveX control.

    The part of the add in that I'm having trouble with is a userform included in the add in that contains the ActiveX control, which is an item browser that connects to a server application running locally on the same computer as Excel. In excel 2010 and earlier, when the userform is called, it pops up with this control with no issues. In 2013, the control is basically invisible. When working in the VBA developer environment, the control is listed as an additional control and can be selected and added to a userform, and again in 2010 or earlier it shows up the way it should (basically just looks similar to a file browse window), there are then functions included in the DLL for connecting the control to the server and getting the required data. What's weird is that in 2013 the control is still listed as an additional control, can still be selected and added to a userform, but all that shows up is the selectable outline of the control! It's totally invisible unless you select it, and then you still only see the resize/move outline of it, no actual content. All of the functions associated with the control are still available, it's entries are the same in the properties window, it shows up in the object browser, but in the userform there's just nothing there.

    I've tried enabling everything in the Trust Center, uninstalling and reinstalling the add-in, manually adding the reference to the DLL, nothing seems to work. Also there are no errors at all when the worksheet is opened or when the userform is called, it really seems like everything is there and working but there's just something about how the control was written that 2013 doesn't like.

    So, does anyone have any ideas as to what might have changed from Excel 2010 to 2013 that could cause an ActiveX control to behave this way?

  2. #2
    PowerPoster jdc2000's Avatar
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    Re: Excel Addin Compatibility Problems with 2013

    Can we assume that you are testing this for Excel 2013 on a different computer than the one(s) where it works in Excel 2003 or Excel 2010?

    Microsoft released some bad patches that affected ActiveX controls in Excel earlier this year. There should now be an updated version of the patch that restores ActiveX functionality. You may want to make sure that you have the latest version of any Excel patches installed.

  3. #3

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    Re: Excel Addin Compatibility Problems with 2013

    Actually it's on the same computer, when it didn't work in 2013 I tried reverting back temporarily to 2010 which ended up working. The problem is that because of licensing issues I can't keep 2010 on the computer, it has to be 2013 (don't ask me why, that's all coming from my SysAdmin). I will double check about the updates, but I do believe it's got all the current patches installed. Thanks though!

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