Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

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StevenDegeling
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Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by StevenDegeling »

Hi.

I’m evaluating and testing PDF-XChange PRO 2012 (bought a single-user license) for our company.
I have used the full-installation on a Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 Terminal Server with Citrix.
We use PDF-Xchange PRO 2012 (5.0.270.0), Office 2003 SP3, AVG2012 and Res Powerfuse 2010.

When I launch Word 2003, the add-in works fine. Toolbar is visible and working.
When I launch Excel or Powerpoint 2003 the add-in is not working, and I dont get any errors about it failing to load. The toolbar is not visible.
Manually enabling the toolbar gives only one (not working) button in the toolbar. After a restart of Excel or Powerpoint the (one-button) toolbar is gone again.

When we launch mmc.exe or PDF viewer or PDF-editor prior to the launch of Excel/Powerpoint the toolbar will work in 95% of the cases. In the other 5% the toolbar fails in the second of third launch of Excel/Powerpoint.

Strange behaviour….

I checked security settings in office, all OK.
I tried the EXE installer and the MSI installer, both the same result.
Citrix install done with ‘change user /install’ of course.
Searched all related topics, found one, about excel toolbar en mmc.exe,
but that topic had no answer at all.

Any help appreciated.
Steven.
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Steven Degeling,

Welcome to our forums. I've checked with my colleagues from the dev team and we will need to set up a similar test system and try to reproduce this behaviour. We will post back here when we've had a chance to test.

Regards,
Stefan
StevenDegeling
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by StevenDegeling »

Ok, thanks Stefan.
We will wait for you reply.
Meanwhile I will do further testing and try to diagnost the problem..
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi Steven,

I'm going to set up a Terminal Server for this test and I just want to clarify something. You said your system is :
Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 Terminal Server with Citrix.
Now I already have a Server 2008 R2 Terminal Server set up, I also have a 2003 Ent (not a TS). It's the R2 that has me confused. Is this a 32 bit 2003 with SP2 (I think this is right) and for sure not a 2008 R2?

I have just never heard of a 2003 R2 and want to make sure I'm setting up the right OS.

please and thanks.
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
StevenDegeling
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by StevenDegeling »

Yes, Paul, it is right. See the screenshots in the attachment.
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Thanks for that Steven,

I have learned something today. I had honestly never seen a W2K3 R2. Finally - I see you have 16GB RAM so I'm assuming this is a 64 bit OS? I couldn't tell from the screen shots.

If so I'll go see if I can get a 64 bit W2K3 R2 ISO to set this up on.

thnx
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
StevenDegeling
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by StevenDegeling »

Paul, it's a 32 bit OS version.
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Thanks - OK - starting over... :-(
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
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StevenDegeling
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by StevenDegeling »

Paul,

we did a new installation with the following command-lines:
start /wait msiexec /i PDFXC5Pro_x86.msi ADDLOCAL="F_Drivers,F_Office2PDF,F_OfficeAddin,F_Help_Drv,F_Wizard,F_Help_Wiz,F_Langs_Wiz,F_Viewer,F_Help_Viewer,F_Langs_Viewer,F_ShellExt,F_OCR_Viewer" KEY="XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX" /qb!

start /wait msiexec /i PDFXVE3.x86.msi ADDLOCAL="F_Viewer,F_Plugins,F_Plugin_SP,F_OCRPlugin,F_VLangs" KEY="XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX" /qb!

Started proces monitor as administrator.
Started Excel.exe as a common user, still no toolbar is loaded. same behaviour.

We have include de proces monitor logfile in this post.
Hope this helps.
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Thanks for that Steven,

I still need to get this reproduced here. It would also be helpful if you can log your install using /lv!*x c:<installerFileName>.msi.log and post it here.

Please and thanks.
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
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Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Sorry to come into between, but can it be that the PDF-XChange add-in is actually disabled or deactivated in Excel 2003 ?
Please read this article to activate or re-enable the add-in:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... s.90).aspx

Maybe it would also be good to verify the "load behaviour" of the add-in the Windows Registry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\PXCOfficeAddin4.Addin]
"LoadBehavior"=dword:00000003

(Should be similar for PDF-XChange version 5 ?)
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Thanks for that Willy,

my understanding was that Steven had already tried re-enabling the Addin and that it produced the Toolbar Icon but that it didn't work and also was gone again after use:
When I launch Excel or Powerpoint 2003 the add-in is not working, and I dont get any errors about it failing to load. The toolbar is not visible.
Manually enabling the toolbar gives only one (not working) button in the toolbar. After a restart of Excel or Powerpoint the (one-button) toolbar is gone again.
Perhaps you can confirm/deny this Steven?

Meanwhile I will continue the set up of the Test Terminal Server and await Steven's install log.

:-)
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
StevenDegeling
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by StevenDegeling »

Paul - Tracker Supp wrote:Thanks for that Willy,

my understanding was that Steven had already tried re-enabling the Addin and that it produced the Toolbar Icon but that it didn't work and also was gone again after use:
When I launch Excel or Powerpoint 2003 the add-in is not working, and I dont get any errors about it failing to load. The toolbar is not visible.
Manually enabling the toolbar gives only one (not working) button in the toolbar. After a restart of Excel or Powerpoint the (one-button) toolbar is gone again.
Perhaps you can confirm/deny this Steven?

Meanwhile I will continue the set up of the Test Terminal Server and await Steven's install log.

:-)
Paul,

confirmed.
LoadBehavior"=dword:00000003
installation logs included
Steven
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Thanks for that Steven,

shouldn't be much longer now. Your patience is appreciated.
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
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StevenDegeling
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by StevenDegeling »

Tracker Support,

Is there any progress and/or status update?

Steven
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hi Steven,

Paul is on holiday this and next week, so it might take a bit longer to investigate this, but I will try to see if he managed to finish the set up of the test environment and if we can do any tests while he is away.

Regards,
Stefan
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Office COM Plugin error then deactivation in Powerpoint 2007

Post by pbourdet »

Hello everybody,

the PDF plugin, which seems to work fine in Word and Excel 2007, keeps having problem and being de-activated in Powerpoint.

Re-activation or re-installation doesn't help. Most of the time, this leads to a Powerpoint crash at startup.

Configuration

Windows XP Pro SP3 / PowerPoint 2007 SP2 / PDF X-Change 5.0 Office COM Plugin

Workaround is possible with PDF Printer but a bit frustrating. So I would appreciate if anybody had a solution for the plugin anyway...
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello pbourdet,

Could you please confirm that you are using build 5.0.271 of the drivers (and office plug-in) on the affected machine?

Regards,
Stefan
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by pbourdet »

Thanks Stefan for this quick answer.

The Office plug-in version is 5.0.271.0, but the printer driver version is 5.0.267.0 (see attached screenshots).

Is that the driver you are talking about ?

Best regards

Philippe Bourdet
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hi Philippe,

Thanks - then this version mismatch could be causing your troubles.
Please do a full uninstall of all our products from the affected machine,
reboot,
remove any folders left in "C\:Program Files\Tracker Software" after the uninstall and reboot
And then try installing the latest build from here:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/downloads
And this should resolve the problem.

Regards,
Stefan
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by pbourdet »

Stefan,

I did the re-installation according to your recommendations. Office Plug-in and printer driver versions are now in sync.

I re-activited the Plug-in in PowerPoint 2007, and crossed finger hoping it does not crask again.

If you don't get any further news, please consider this is good news :=)

Thanks for the help.

Best regards.

Philippe Bourdet
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hi Philippe,

Glad to hear it's stable and working for now!

Cheers,
Stefan
StevenDegeling
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by StevenDegeling »

Stefan,

I did the re-installation according to your recommendations. Office Plug-in and printer driver versions are now in sync.

The problem is still here...

do you have any suggestions?

Steven Degeling
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

HI Steven,

our devs have been trying to reproduce this, so far without success. They will continue to investigate this and look for a fix.

I have made an internal report for our development team to investigate and resolve as soon as possible. The ticket number for future reference is : RT#2013: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

We appreciate your patience and understanding whilst this is being investigated.
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
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Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

One little chance to make it work ...

Verify security settings in Excel 2003 and PowerPoint 2003 via
> Tools-menu > Options > Security-tab > Macro Security-button > Trusted Publishers-tab
> check (= activate) "Trust all installed add-ins and templates"
(if it is not checked, you will not see the PDF-XChange toolbar)
Confirm by clicking OK + OK

Finally click File-menu > Exit and restart Excel/PowerPoint.
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Thanks Willy,

we will certainly be taking that into consideration, Steven, does the suggestion Willy made effect any change in the behaviour you are seeing?
Best regards

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StevenDegeling
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by StevenDegeling »

Paul,


I have checked the options as suggested, there were already right.
See the attached file.
So, still no change in the behaviour.

Steven
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Re: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hi Steven,

I just spoke with one of the Office Add-in developers and he told me the following:
Our addin for PowerPoint/Excel uses the clipboard to create the toolbar. So it looks like there is a problem with it on the affected machine with Citrix. Maybe some clipboard configuration would help:
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX086028

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=840872
So please do try it and let us know how it goes.

Regards,
Stefan
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