Your solution works fine in a closed system. As soon as your files are deployed to a different location, you lose access to users’ computers.

The other alternative is to clean out temp directories, encourage upgrades to Windows and Office, then open your workbook in Excel 2000, running a code cleaning utility, and saving them.

Yet another alternative, which I have not written about yet, involves using a textbox with a drop arrow and Application.InputBox to get the range from the user. No RefEdit, so no errors.

I write a lot of excel sheets for work. I work for a company contracted to look after a warehouse. We run their computers, with their network and get no say in what versions of software we run.

I (being a nerd) have upgraded office 2003 to SP3 everyone else is < SP3. My sheets will not run ref edit error on pre SP3.

Until that is I copy refedit.dll from my SP3 machine to theirs, and re-register it with the system.

No More Errors.

Deleting the temp and forms files did not help. When I ran the diagnostics, Excel reported finding and fixing it a problem during the 20 checks it makes in the setup area, but wouldn’t tell me any more details. The Ctrl-C problem seems top be cured, but I haven’t tried reinstalling the add-in.

Thanks for the pointer.

I recently “upgraded” to Excel 2007 and was greeted with a battle of the Micros, Microcharts v. Microsoft. I kept getting the error, “Compile error in hidden module: modInit” as soon as I opened Excel, and Microcharts wouldn’t run.

After sinking about 5 hours into trying to fix the problem, I came across Bob Flanagan’s post above, used his temp deleting program, repaired Office 2007, and voila, I’m back in business. Thank you Mr. Flanagan for documenting the fix and sharing it with everyone. And thanks to you Dr. Peltier for hosting this terrific site!

John C. Munoz
http://www.bzintelguru.com

Now I’m back at work and trying it. So far it seems to work. I can’t imagine why – though it does suggest that whatever is the source of the painfully frustrating error it isn’t actually RefEdit…

Thanks for your remediation protocol. It’s not too different from what I’ve done, but it’s more systematic, and I believe your success rate is good. I go through and wipe out the EXD files from time to time, just for target practice, but it seems to reduce funny business that occurs from time to time. It’s nice that you have a utility to clean up the temp and EXD files, I’ll have to give it a try.

My first line of defense is to uncheck the reference to the refedit control in Tools, References before I release an add-in or macro. This fixes it about 95% of the time. However, I get a few users who still have the problem with vba macros not running. I’ve been 99.99% successful in solving for them by:

1) First, having them run the free Temp File Deleter found at http://www.add-ins.com/temp_file_deleter.htm. I have them delete all temp files and all the EXD files. Both are critical steps. Especially the deletion of the EXD files.

2) Reboot and then install all service packes starting with sp1 to spX for the user’s version of Excel. Technically one should only need to run the latest. But for some users, running all three is the only cure.

3) Re-run the Temp File Deleter after installing the service packs – very important as it removes the EXD files so the next step is done cleanly.

4) And the last step: Run a dectect and repair (or Excel 2007 diagnose) after installing the service packs.

I’ve outline all the steps at http://www.add-ins.com/how_to_repair_office.htm by excel version.

Again, success rate is 99.99%.

Bob Flanagan

Short of voodoo or alchemy, I doubt there’s a magical fix. The Detect and Repair and Office Diagnostics may be as close as we get, since they’ve been relatively effective.