Can OWC10 and OWC11 co-exist?

[Sean]

I have developed some web pages that use the excel spreadsheet object from
the Office XP version of the Office Web Components (OWC10). They work fine
as long as the client machine has Office XP installed along with OWC10.
However, a machine with Office 2003 installed along with OWC11 does not allow
the user to view the Excel spreadsheet.

What can I do as the developer to allow a client machine with Office 2003
installed to view a web page that has a 2002 Office Web component on it?

Do I have to upgrade my development machine to use the Office 2003 Web
Components?

Is there no way for one OWC spreadsheet object to support multiple versions
of Office on the client side?

 

[Alvin Bruney [Microsoft MVP]]

The fact that owc10 is not viewable from a 2003 client indicates a problem
already because 2003 ships with owc10 for compatibility reasons.

Is there no way for one OWC spreadsheet object to support multiple
versions
of Office on the client side?

It depends on how you are displaying to the client. If you are embedding
objects in the response stream, then simply embed the correct object.
Otherwise, you will need to write some script to sniff out the capabilities
of the client and instantiate the correct object.

There are a couple of issues that you need to be mindful of when developing
such an application because of registration mis-steps and/or breaking
changes in released versions pertaining to service packs.

You can read more about these breaking changes by reading the free preview
of chapter 1 on www.lulu.com/owc. The sniff script is also included in the
preview.

--
Regards
Alvin Bruney
[Shameless Author Plug]
The Microsoft Office Web Components Black Book with .NET
available at www.lulu.com/owc