What to do if you get the message “Unspecified Error”

If you get the message “Unspecified Error” when you open Excel or when you close Excel after installing our add-ins, the problem is caused by a problem with the installation of Microsoft Office. There is not a problem with the add-ins. Re-installing our add-ins does not solve the problem. Please follow the instructions on our page on how to repair Office to solve.

The problem is often caused by uninstalling a trial version of Excel 2007, a missing service pack or an Office patch that was automatically run by Windows. It is sometimes caused by getting Office pre-installed on the PC when you purchase the PC.

If you have installed an add-in (not ours) or a macro-enabled workbook, and you get the message “Unspecified Error” there are two likely causes:

• A problem with the installation of Microsoft Office. The steps at how to repair Office may solve the problem.
• If the repair steps do not solve, the most likely cause is a DLL referenced in the add-in or macro-enabled workbook that is not compatible with your version of Excel. Our add-ins do not use DLLs, so we avoid this issue.

To determine if it is a DLL conflict, check Tools, References in the VBA editor for the add-in or macro workbook. Most likely there is a control on a form that requires a special DLL reference. Remove this control, and the reference will disappear. If this eliminates the error (after commenting out any code that may refer to the control you removed), then the problem is the DLL. If the original code works on some machines and not on others, then the machines on which it works have a different release of the DLL. The solution is to uninstall and then re-install the software that installed the DLL. You may need to unregister the DLL and delete it and then do the installation. Some software (such as Adobe PDF reader) does not remove DLLs when uninstalled, nor replace old with new.