OWC11 and Office (Excel) 2007 - view-only mode

[Robert]

Has anyone tested OWC11 with Office 2007? I just upgraded to Office 2007 and
got all OWC-object in our application in "view-only mode". Since MS decided
to remove OWC from 2007 Office release I guess that 11 is and will be the
latest OWC-release.

The download page for OWC11 states that it works with Office 2003, and
that's the obvious reason I only got "view-only mode" after installing
Office 2007... but since OWC will be supported for another couple of years I
dont understand how to get Office 2007 and OWC work together, and not only
in "view-only mode".

Did I miss something?

 

[Alvin Bruney [MVP]]

OWC11 isn't forward compatible with office 2007. If you have Office 2007,
you should be using excel services.

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[rjohansson]

Hi Alvin,

And thanks for the answer. I expected a 2007-combatible OWC from MS,
but without any new functionality.

A strange thing is that I got it working ... I reinstalled the latest
OWC11 after the Office 2007 installation. The "view-only" mode is gone
and it is possible to interact with the charts and also export the
content to Excel 2007.

Have to check it further if this is a supported combination in the
final Office 2007 or not. In the long run I have to go for Excel
Services of course =)

Regards
Robert

 

[Alvin Bruney [MVP]]

Well technically speaking, you're correct. Forward compatibility can only go
so far. These are COM objects basically so a COM compliant platform can't
specifically prevent them from working unless specifically engineered to do
so re Visual Studio 2005. In that case (VS 2005) design-time functionality
is disabled, but since these are COM components, the workaround is simply to
manipulate the components at run-time.

I think you've found a workaround by re-installing OWC after installing
Office 2007 to undo the damage done by Office 2007. Nice. Very nice. And
simple. Very simple.

That being said, Excel services is the way to go for the future. However,
you should note that Excel services comes with its nasty licensing issues
(scarcely talked about and publiced). Out of the fire, straight into the
pot.

--
________________________
Warm regards,
Alvin Bruney [MVP ASP.NET]

[Shameless Author plug]
Professional VSTO.NET - Wrox/Wiley
The O.W.C. Black Book with .NET
www.lulu.com/owc, Amazon
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/blogs/alvin