Try this uggabugga

I like you name <g

ToolsOptionsGeneral uncheck "Ignore other Applications"
Exit Excel and try again

If this doesn't work try to re-register Excel

Close Excel first and
On the Windows Taskbar

1 ) StartRun "excel.exe /unregserver"(no quotes)OK.
2) StartRun "excel.exe /regserver"(no quotes)OK.
See the space between exe and /regserver

You might have to designate a full path to excel.exe.
In that case StartRun "C:\yourpath\excel.exe /regserver"(no quotes)OK





--

Regards Ron de Bruin
http://www.rondebruin.nl/tips.htm


"uggabugga" wrote in message ...
I have a user with a unique problem that I have not seen before. When double
clicking an Excel document, Excel opens to a blank Excel window but the
document does not open unless it is opened from within Excel.

The problem started when the user noticed that her Mail Merge was not
working properly. While attempting to use Mail Merge, the user receives the
following message:

Word cannot re-establish a DDE Connection to MS Excel to complete the
current task

I assume that Word is reporting that error because Excel is not working
properly.

I tried to repair Office once and I completely removed & reinstalled Office
two times and the problem remains.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.