Ok this is such a bizarre, weird problem

Not at all. People report this all the time.

Turn off Ignore Other Applications under Tools, Options, General.

--
Jim
"Filk.com" wrote in message
oups.com...
| Ok this is such a bizarre, weird problem I have to toss it out to
| everyone to see if they can figure out what is going on.
|
| Problem in a nutshell: This just started a week ago. A team of people
| in the accounting department has been using Microsoft Excel for years
| to track information. They have reasonably new computer running XP and
| office 2003. If they try to open a excel files on their computer or on
| a network drive (original or shortcut) by double clicking on it Excel
| launches software but opens up blank screen (not even the blank
| worksheet).
|
| Now they can access their files by going to the file pull down menu and
| then chose open file, navigate to the file and open it then. This
| second method the documents open just fine. Here's the kicker, no one
| else in the company (100+) has this problem all, and they can access
| and use these files like normal.
|
| I have done all the obvious things:
|
| -- Created new shortcuts and documents
| -- Put the old information into a new document
| -- Everything has been patched and up-to-date
| -- Office has been uninstalled and reinstalled from scratch.
| -- The rest of office software (Word, PowerPoint, Access) all works
| fine.
| -- Viruses -scanned and found none.
| -- Scanned for spyware and a like. I found a few minor things, but they
| were cleaned up and it didn't change / fix the problem.
| -- I have also tried the reregistering (excel /unregserver ..... excel
| /regserver) fix
|
| I'm been avoiding doing a complete format and re-install of
| everything or giving them new computers.
|
| Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?
|
| Thanks for the help
|