IBM Support

"The Controller Excel Link for Microsoft Excel addin was disabled" when opening Data Entry form

Troubleshooting


Problem

User launches the 'main' Controller client, and clicks "Company - Data Entry - Reported Values". User tries to open a data entry form. An error appears.

Symptom


The Controller Excel Link for Microsoft Excel addin was disabled. The Excel needs to restart. Force the restart now?

After clicking 'Yes':

Error opening Excel
Excel is busy editing, please finish editing in Excel and try again.

Cause

There are several known causes for the 'Excel is busy editing, please finish editing in Excel and try again' error.

  • For more examples, see separate IBM Technote #0718739.

 

This Technote specifically relates to the scenario where the cause is that Excel has crashed, and has therefore caused the "Cognos Controller Link for Microsoft Excel" COM add-in to become inactive:

Resolving The Problem

Re-enable the "Cognos Controller Link for Microsoft Excel" COM add-in.

Steps:
The steps will vary slightly, depending on the version of Excel that you are using. The following are based on Excel 2016:
1. Launch Excel
2. Click "File - Options"
3. Click "Add-ins"
4. Change 'Manage' to 'COM Add-ins'

5. Click 'Go...'

6. Tick the box next to 'Cognos Controller Link for Microsoft Exce'':

7. Click OK.
8. Test.

9. If the above has not solved the problem, then reset the 'bad' end user's Excel registry key, by renaming 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel' to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel.BAD

  • TIP: For more details see separate IBM Technote #2004440.

 

10. Test.

 

[{"Product":{"code":"SS9S6B","label":"IBM Cognos Controller"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"Controller","Platform":[{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"10.3","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
25 July 2018

UID

swg22015731