Thursday, June 5, 2008

Open Lotus files from Excel (KB 938810)

We have installed Office 2003 Service Pack and now when trying to open Lotus files from within Excel I get an error, "You are attempting to open a file type that is blocked by your registry policy setting".

Here is what I did to fix this error: THIS IS A REGISTRY FIX SO MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!

To enable Excel 2003 to open files in earlier Excel file types, follow these steps:

  1. Exit Excel 2003.
  2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
  3. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
  4. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security
  5. After you select the subkey that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
  6. Type FileOpenBlock, and then press ENTER.
  7. With the FileOpenBlock subkey selected, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
  8. Type LotusandQuattroFiles, and then press ENTER.
  9. Right-click LotusandQuattroFiles, and then click Modify.
  10. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
  11. Repeat steps 6 through 9 for the LegacyBinaryFiles registry entry and for the LegacyDatabaseAndDatasourceFiles registry entry.
  12. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

To enable Excel 2003 to save files in earlier Excel file types, follow these steps:

  1. Exit Excel 2003.
  2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
  3. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
  4. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security
  5. After you select the subkey that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
  6. Type FileSaveBlock, and then press ENTER.
  7. With the FileSaveBlock subkey selected, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
  8. Type LotusandQuattroFiles, and then press ENTER.
  9. Right-click LotusandQuattroFiles, and then click Modify.
  10. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
  11. Repeat steps 6 through 9 for the LegacyBinaryFiles registry entry and for the LegacyDatabaseAndDatasourceFiles registry entry.
  12. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

There are also other files type effected as well so see this link (Information about certain file types that are blocked after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3 ) for additional file type details.