This seems to be a common problem (but it doesn't happen all the time).

Right now there is no fix--just workarounds like you found--or opening excel,
then using ctrl-o to open the file.

JHL wrote:

Recently upgraded to Excel 2007 via Office Enterprise 2007. Converted one
spreadsheet to the .xlsm format and created a desktop shortcut to replace the
old one.

The spreadsheet is password protected.
When I double-click the shortcut, Excel will open but the spreadsheet does
not. If I then try to open from within Excel, the password prompt comes up
and then access to the spreadsheet.

How do I get the shortcut to work properly?

--

Dave Peterson