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Common Issues in Excel

The following outlines some of the common issues experienced when using Connector in Excel.

Ensure to save your document after verifying the changes.

Connector Add-in is disabled

After an Excel crash, the Connector Add-in can become disabled.

Solution:

  1. Go to File | Options | Add-Ins.
  2. From the Manage drop-down, select Disabled Items and click Go.
  3. Select CaseWare Connector and click Enable.
  4. From the Manage drop-down, now select COMM Add-Ins and click Go.
  5. Select the check box for CaseWare Connector and click OK.

Recalculate is not working

Recalculate does not function when the Excel calculation mode is set to manual. In certain cases, Connector can switch the calculation mode to manual to perform other operations. If Excel crashes or becomes unresponsive during these operations, the calculation mode can remain set to manual.

Solution:

  1. Open Excel.
  2. From the Formulas menu, select Calculation Options.
  3. Set the calculation mode to Automatic.

Unlink function is not working

If the worksheet is protected, all cells in that sheet will be locked unless unlocked by the user. The unlink function cannot modify locked cells and will skip these cells during the unlink.

Solution: Unlock cells to enable Connector to perform an unlink. To unlock cells, you need to unprotect the worksheet first. Refer to the Help in Excel for further instructions.

Relink function is not working

When unlinking, Connector creates a hidden worksheet to store unlinked information. This hidden sheet enables you to relink the document after unlinking.

If the workbook structure was protected at the time of unlinking, then the unlink is permanent. In protected workbooks, you cannot add new worksheets and thus Connector cannot store the necessary information to perform a relink. If you saved a backup copy prior to unlinking, a relink is not necessary; simply revert to the backup copy.

Selecting from a drop-down menu in the Linkage dialog is not working

Note: This only occurs in Microsoft Office 2013.

If a drop-down menu extends beyond the bottom of the Linkage dialog, the value of the list items outside of the dialog boundary will not be accepted when the item is clicked.

Solution:

  • Highlight the menu item that extends past the Linkage dialog and press Enter, or
  • Increase the size of the Linkage dialog so that the dialog is large enough to accommodate the length of the drop-down menus.

For more information, please see Selecting from Linkage Dialog Drop-down Menus in Word and Excel.

Linking to CaseView database records returns #VALUE error

Linking to CaseView database records can return an empty string in Excel which can cause a #VALUE error.

Solution: Change the default Connector behavior by using the CVDataBlankToZero registry key which converts empty strings to a zero (0) value instead. For more information, see Linking to CaseView Database Records in Excel.

Excel does not open from the Document Manager

Attempting to open an Excel document from the Document Manager of Working Papers fails.

Solution:

  1. Open Excel from the Start menu.
  2. Go to File | Options | Advanced.
  3. Under General options, deselect the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) check box.

Paste command is not working

When copying content from one Excel document to another in the same client file, the paste function can become unresponsive. This issue can occur when you perform steps in this order:

  1. Open the source document from the Document Manager.
  2. Copy some content onto the clipboard (Ctrl+C).
  3. Open the target document from the Document Manager.
  4. Attempt to paste the content into the target document.

In this scenario, the contents of the clipboard are erased when opening the target document and may continue to be unavailable.

Workaround:

  1. In Working Papers, open both the source and target documents from the Document Manager.
  2. Copy the contents from the source document.
  3. In the target document, use the right-click menu and Formulas (Fx) option to paste.

Context (right-click) menu does not appear

The Connector context menu only functions when your mouse focus is placed on a cell. When the focus is placed on other Excel entities, like a page, the right-click menu for Connector does not appear.

Solution: Ensure that you are not viewing the document in a mode such as Page Preview mode. In this mode you can only focus on the page and not cells. Change the viewing mode to Normal under the menu View | Workbook Views.

Tickmark image option is disabled

When you include a tickmark in the worksheet, Connector adds the tickmark image to the worksheet and stores it in the worksheet picture collection.

If the workbook and/or worksheet is protected, then Connector cannot store the image in the picture collection. Saving an image to the picture collection modifies the worksheet structure which is prohibited when protection is enabled.

Document reference link is not working

Typically, a document reference link attempts to open the document in the active client file (open in Working Papers). If there is no active client file, then Connector attempts to open the last accessed client file for the current machine. Connector then attempts to locate the document on the Document Manager based on the document number. The document reference can operate incorrectly if:

  • The last accessed client file is not the appropriate client file and the specified document number references some other type of item on the Document Manager.
  • The document number does not exist for this client file.

Solution: Open the appropriate client file in Working Papers prior to clicking a document reference.

Excel freezes when a document contains DDE links and Logitech software is installed

When using Connector in an Excel document that contains DDE links, Logitech software can interfere with DDE messages sent from Excel. Logitech software has the potential to cause Excel to freeze. This issue will not occur in Excel documents that use UDF links.

Solution:

  • Convert all DDE links to UDF links in the Excel document, or
  • Uninstall the Logitech SetPoint software from Start | Control Panel | Programs and Features.

Note: We recommend converting DDE links to UDF links. For more information, see Converting DDE Links to UDF in a Single Document and Converting DDE Links to UDF in Batch.

Excel ribbon no longer responsive after batch DDE conversion

When performing a batch DDE conversion with another Excel document open at the same time, the Excel ribbon becomes unresponsive. This occurs across all open instances of Excel and any Excel document opened after the conversion process. You will not be able to interact with the Excel ribbon, but you will be able to close the documents.

Solution:

Prior to the conversion:

  1. Close all Excel documents except the Excel document in which you are converting links.
  2. Proceed to convert links using the batch procedure. For more information, please see the topic Converting DDE Links to UDF in Batch.

Error: "Document needs to be recalculated"

Caused by Excel's calculation policy. Although the option in Connector Do not recalculate immediately is enabled, this error message can still prompt you to recalculate.

Normally when workbooks that contain UDFs are opened, a recalculate is not performed unless the UDFs are volatile (CaseWare UDFs are not volatile). Ensure to open and save workbooks inside of the engagement before moving or sending the workbook to help preserve values.

Cannot convert file if another file with the same name is open

Attempting to convert a file, individually or as part of a batch, with the same name as an open Excel file, will not succeed.

Excel does not allow multiple files with the same name to be opened at the same time.

Excel crashes on exit

Occurs when the following two conditions are met:

  • Working Papers 2014 was installed after Working Papers 2015.
  • Clicking on a newly-created document hyperlink.

Installing Working Papers 2014 after installing Working Papers 2015 is not a supported scenario.

Solution: Reinstall Working Papers 2015.

Connector disappears from the Insert Function dialog

Occurs when a third-party OPEN registry key (xll or xla) has been removed from Excel after Connector was installed.

Solution: Follow the instruction for Loading the Connector Excel add-in as optional.

Loading Connector UDFs when "#NAME" is displayed in cells

Occurs when Excel cannot find the Connector UDFs.

Solution:

  1. Go to File | Options | Add-ins.
  2. From the Manage menu, select Disabled Items.
  3. Click Go.... The Disabled Items dialog opens.

  4. If CaseWare Connector UDF is listed in the dialog, select it and then click Enable.

    Note: If it is not listed in the dialog, click Browse and select CWConnector.XLL from the Connector installation folder on your computer. Open CWConnector.XLL and then repeat Step 4.

  5. Go to Connector | Tools and click Recalculate. The cells no longer display #NAME.

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