Microsoft Excel Error: "There was a problem sending the command to the program."
For the last three years or more, I’ve been living with a little annoyance with Microsoft Excel. It’s one of those things that’s just not quite annoying enough to get to the bottom of, and I figured it was some obscure registry setting I’d never find and must be something odd about my laptop setup only. Sure, I tried a few times to fix it, but I never got anywhere.
Well, today as I was moving from the laptop I’ve been using through the last three years to my brand spanking new HP Envy 15 (more about this bad boy later), I got the dreaded “There was a problem sending the command to the program.” error on the new machine. Ok, now it was personal.
The error occurred anytime I tried to open an Excel file from outside Excel by clicking on it in Windows Explorer or an email. It can look like either of these two examples:
The bottom line is that while the Excel application opens just fine, it doesn’t open the file, showing the error instead. (“Was this information helpful?” No, not so much.)
Off to the Interwebs, and I finally found a post in some obscure forum (three or four reboots later, I have no idea where it was) that gave me a clue about the cause. There’s a setting in Excel 2007 which prevents it from opening files if the request comes via Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), and it is enabled by default. Go to the Office Button / Excel Options / Advanced, and scroll all the way down to the General section. There you will see the “Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)” setting checked. Uncheck the box, click OK to apply, and you’re good to go. Never mind that those very applications that want to use DDE may be other Office apps!
<UPDATE dateTime=”2011-07-21T16:48″>If you’re using Office 2007, the Office Button is the big circle with the logo in the upper left of the screen shown above. If you’re using Office 2010, there’s no longer a button, but what’s called “backstage”, shown below.</UPDATE>
Numerous forums give the advice about unchecking the box that says “”Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)”. My problem has always been that it is already unchecked so it did not help at all. Any other ideas?
for those using excel 2010, this “Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)” setting is unchecked
so check it, close excel. then open excel, uncheck and close excel.
should be fine the next time you open it
Thanks man, Had to leave my sick bed to go fix this error
for my boss,
works superbly charm!! thnx… tried many other solution.. guess this is the simplest!..
That’s not working for me? Any other solution?
You are da man, I have been pulling my hair out about this one searching the blogs, googling to no avail until I tried your fix.
This is great!
Steve
This is ridiculous. I now have this problem on 3 of my workstations, all running Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit and Office 2007. None of the fixes here have worked, and there seems to be no solution for the many of us who have this problem.
Does anyone know if an upgrade to Office 2010 will solve this annoyance? I’m reluctant to spend out on an upgrade if it won’t cure this glitch.
Such an easy fix I was struggling with this for month and I was lazy even to google the error..
Thanks very much.
Great…took me a while to figure out what the office button was. For other noobs, it is the excel button in the top left corner.