preview pane not working

C

Carol Freidman

I am using Excel 2002 on Windows ME laptop and when I go into File - Open
and click the "Preview" pane, I am unable to see any files. They all say
"Preview not available". This happens with older files as well as new
files -- ALL EXCEL FILES.

Any suggestions as to what is wrong?

Carol
 
J

Jim

Well, there are many ways to set up and customize your installation, but on
my machine (running Win XP and Office XP, I do not have that option
available at any time. Once a file is open, I can File>Print Preview, but I
do not have the option to Preview closed files.
 
D

Debra Dalgleish

You can see a preview if you've set that property in the Excel file:

Open an Excel file
Choose File>Properties
 
J

Jim

Debra, I am familiar with that setting, but I still do not know how to
Preview a file, either by File>*select the file and right-click and choose
Properties (there is no Preview option) or any other way. I also cannot
preview it in Explorer, even if I choose Thumbnails under View. Can you
Preview a file? If so, please tell us how.
 
D

Debra Dalgleish

In Excel, choose File>Open, or File>Save As
In the toolbar, from the View dropdown, choose Preview.
Click on a file, and if the preview option has been set,
you'll see a preview of the file. Otherwise, the preview pane
will show 'Preview not available'
 
C

Carol Freidman

Debra: Thanks for your advice, but I've never set the properties in any
other file on any other computer and I get the Preview just fine. I somehow
think there is a "system" setting on the program that is not working -- not
just a File Property setting. Are you suggesting I would need to do this
for every workbook file for the preview to work? Somehow I don't think so.
Any other ideas?????
 
J

Jim

That does not work for me (WinXP, OffXP); there is no mention of Preview in
any context. I have chosen the Save preview option, Saved changes and
re-launched XL.
 
D

Debra Dalgleish

In Excel, choose File>Open
At the top right of the Open dialog box, you should see a View button,
with a dropdown arrow at its right.
Click the arrow, and you'll see the view options (Large icons, etc.)
Preview should be the sixth item in that list
 
J

Jim

AHA! and Eureka!..Finally!...your patience has paid off! Thanks for your
persistence, Debra
 
D

Debra Dalgleish

You're welcome. The option is well hidden, but I knew you'd find it
eventually. <g>
 
D

Dave Peterson

Any chance that the template that the workbooks were based on had that option
set.

You can have a template file in XLStart called Book.xlt. Any new workbook will
inherit those settings.

Any chance that this was it?

(or maybe you based the new workbooks on a workbook that had this setting
enabled--or maybe another user did it?????)
 
Top