Having an Excel add-in loaded only when the user wants to load it keeps Excel
"cleaner". On the other hand, registering an add-in in the Add-In Manager
listing can potentially mess up things (as you have described).

However, in some occassions, it could be better to have an add-in loaded
automatically every time Excel starts. For example, if the add-in contains
custom-built worksheet formulas that everyone in the office uses.

If a spreadsheet used a custom function in an add-in, and that add-in is not
loaded, some users who are not very familiar with Excel will feel lost and
confused.

But, generally, I cannot see any real "problem" for loading an add-in
"on-demand" by opening the add-in file manually by the user.

Regards,
Edwin Tam

http://www.vonixx.com



"Jos Vens" wrote:

Hi,

in short, I repeat my question which did not appear in the newsgroup this
afternoon (server problems???).

I made an application in VBA Excel. I split up my workbooks and program-code
so I could easily make an update.

1° First (2000-2003), I worked with a reference to the excel file that had
the code
2° Later (2003-now), I worked with an XLA addin which was automatically
loaded on startup (in Addin-list of Excel)
3° Now (today), I discoverd that simply opening the XLA-file is enough to
make it work, so it must not be in the addin-list (addin installed), and
even more, it must not be a proper Excel file (extension is not important).

Why do I find the third method the best? Well, I the past, I had a lot of
problems with the user-profile in windows, where the path to the addin is
stored. Last year, I wanted to place the program-code in another folder,
and maybe, I want to rename the filename. Those two issues are very hard to
do, because when you start up Excel, you get an error message, and you can
not easily change the path or addin-name in the user-profile (Excel lacks
the possibility of removing (rather than unchecking) an addin in the list of
addins).

Question: are there contra-indications of working with an addin (or simply
"a code-holding file") which is not installed? For me, I see no problem,
code works fine, and even better, the addin is not loaded when I simple use
Excel to make another spreadsheet. I like to work so, but can you warn me
for things I do not foresee?

Thanks
Jos Vens