User profile for user: mauricemaurice
mauricemaurice Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

Accessing my Excel 4.0 macros in a Mac mini

I have been keeping my personal accounts for years on Excel 4.0, with lots of custom made macros which make it a breeze to keep up to date.

Then I switched to a Mac mini, running Tiger.
It lets me use my worksheets fairly normally, but Classic immediately quits if I touch the upper tool bar (File, Edit, Formula, Format, Data, Options, Macro, window).
Trouble is that I need that toolbar to access my macro and to set links.

Tiger came with an offer to purchase the latest Excel version, but it costs an arm and a leg and I am perfectly happy with my old 4.0

I can't figure what is the point of Tiger allowing the use of Excel 4.0 but not of its menu bar (Actually, that bar may well belong to Excel 2001, as its logo is green, whereas the the 4.0 logo is blue and grey. I have a copy of Excel 2001 installed. should I trash it (after burning it on a CD in case I should want it later on)? I have lost the original CD and I don't know if Excel can be just copied back and forth without an installer.

What do you advise?

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Posted on Apr 25, 2006 4:19 PM

Reply
16 replies
User profile for user: Dr. Smoke
Dr. Smoke
User level: Level 9
56,586 points

Apr 25, 2006 11:13 PM in response to mauricemaurice

Hi, maurice.

Change the default application for all of your spreadsheets to Excel 4.0.

See "Mac OS X 10.4 Help: Changing the application that opens a document."

Since Excel 2001 is newer, it is being launched as the default application for your Excel spreadsheet files. Changing the default app for all spreadsheet files to Excel 4.0 will override this.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Reply
User profile for user: mauricemaurice
mauricemaurice Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

Apr 26, 2006 1:10 PM in response to Dr. Smoke

Thank you very much for your help, Dr Smoke, I did as you suggested but after selecting Excel 4.0 and clicking on the Convert all button an alert came up:

Are you sure you want to change all your Microsoft Excel 4.0 documents to open with the application "Microsoft Excel 4.0"?

There were two buttons: Cancel and Continue I clicked on Continue... and the Excel 2001 returned immediately!

I repeated the manoeuver a few more times on other Excel 4.0 files, with the same result.

Please tell me if there is another way, or a variation of this one, which would do the trick.
Reply
User profile for user: Dr. Smoke
Dr. Smoke
User level: Level 9
56,586 points

Apr 27, 2006 7:12 AM in response to mauricemaurice

Hi, maurice.

That's interesting. I've not seen that before where it refuses to accept such a change, assuming you clicked Continue as you noted.

1. I presume your old friend Excel 4.0 runs in Classic mode and that you've set up Classic preferences (System Preferences > Classic) correctly, yes? If not, be sure there's a System Folder selected for Classic.

2. It could be that your Launch Services databases are corrupted. See my "Resetting Launch Services" FAQ. Then try resetting the default application again.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

---
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.
Reply
User profile for user: mauricemaurice
mauricemaurice Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

Apr 27, 2006 9:15 PM in response to Dr. Smoke

Dr. Smoke,
Thank you for the precise instructions.

Before resetting Launch Services I thought of giving Get Info a last try, this time manually configuring each Excel file to open using Excel 4.0 (since the Change All function failed)

That did not work.

I then trashed all the files that could be related to Excel except the 4.0 fies. and restarted. No change.

I then trashed the 2 HD > Library > caches files, restarted and emptied the trash. Still no change.

Finally I trashed the Home > Library > caches file, restarted and emptied the trash. However, as before, when Excel 4.0 was launched, any clicking on the upper menu bar caused Classic to quit.

So it is back to square one. I have a feeling that that upper menu bar belongs to OS X although Excel 4.0 is running in Classic.
That menu bar has taken the place of the original 4.0 bar, but is unusable.
Unfortunately, without it, Excel 4.0 is deprived of many functions. Can you please suggest further steps I could try?
You said to reset the default application again. Is that what I just did by trashing those library files, or is it something else I should have done after that?

To answer your questions:
Yes, Excel 4.0 runs in Classic mode (but do I have a choice?) There is a 9.2 System folder there. The defaut setting is Extensions off for Classic. So far, I left it that way.

Incidentally, to quit all the running applications, I quit them one by one from the Dock, but isn't there a way of doing this in one click?
Reply
User profile for user: mduser63
mduser63
User level: Level 2
480 points

Apr 27, 2006 10:01 PM in response to mauricemaurice

I don't have Excel 4.0, but I do have Excel 3.0. Excel 3.0 launches and runs on my Power Mac G5 with 10.4.5, but as soon as I click the menubar, it quits. I don't think it has anything to do with having a newer version of Excel installed. I think it's just one of the many problems you run into when trying to run really old apps in Classic in Tiger. Most OS 9 apps work, but a lot of old apps, especially complex ones, don't. FWIW, I tried launching a bunch of other old apps on my G5, and of the ones I tried, only SimAnt worked fine. All the others either wouldn't even launch or quickly crashed after launching. MS Word 4.0 wouldn't even launch at all.

Can you not use Excel 2001 (or v.X or 2004) because your old macros won't transfer over? Despite the hassle, it might just be time to upgrade. You've done pretty well using 4.0 for all this time.
Reply
User profile for user: Dr. Smoke
Dr. Smoke
User level: Level 9
56,586 points

Apr 28, 2006 5:34 AM in response to mauricemaurice

Hi, maurice.

1. You wrote:
"Can you please suggest further steps I could try?"
Unfortunately not. It may be as mduser63 has suggested: Excel 4.0 may just be too old to run properly under Classic. The problem seems to be with the menu bar and may be some incompatibility. Given how old Excel 4.0 is, the current Mac OS at that time may have been OS 7.x or 8.x and many apps that old don't run well in Classic.

2. You might want to search or post on the Excel group you can find on the Microsoft Mac Support - Newsgroups page. These are Google Groups with active participation from MS Excel users, including a variety of expert users.

I don't mean to send you somewhere else, but I've found numerous answers there for folks with questions related to MS products. Accordingly, it has often proved to be the first, best place to look for answers to questions such as you are asking. You may find someone else there running Excel 4.0.

3. Re-reading your post, you said you "switched to a Mac mini running Tiger." What were you using before with your Mac release of Excel 4.0?

4. You wrote:
"Incidentally, to quit all the running applications, I quit them one by one from the Dock, but isn't there a way of doing this in one click? "
Not built in. Take a look at a third-party app like Quit Anything. I've not used it, but it may meet your requirements.

Another way to quickly quit applications is using the application switcher: Command-Tab. When a app is selected in such, you can press the Q key while still holding the Command key to quit the app. You can quickly quit a slew of apps this way.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Reply
User profile for user: mauricemaurice
mauricemaurice Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

Apr 28, 2006 3:37 PM in response to Dr. Smoke

Dr.Smoke,

I must try the Command Tab way of quitting apps. It should be enough for me. Many thanks for your tips and your goodwill.

I have put my Excel 4.0 problem to the Google group which you kindly pointed to me. Someone else was already there with the same query!

To answer your question, Excel 4.0 was transplanted to my Mac mini from a beige G3 running OS 9.2.2 where it has served me very well for years.

In OS X, Classic is a second class resident, tolerated but grudgingly. Everything has to be managed by OS X, resulting in half baked mixtures as in this case.
Reply
User profile for user: Dr. Smoke
Dr. Smoke
User level: Level 9
56,586 points

Apr 28, 2006 3:51 PM in response to mauricemaurice

Hi, maurice.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

I noticed you stated you were running 9.2.2 on your G3 but earlier you wrote the following concerning Classic on your new Mac:
"There is a 9.2 System folder there."
I suspect you meant 9.2.2, but if not, you may want to update it to 9.2.2. The updates are available here.

I never launch Classic anymore: in fact, I only have Mac OS 9 installed on a FireWire drive to use Classic when troubleshooting. The sooner you can move all your apps to Mac OS X, the better. 😉

PS: If you found any of my replys, or those from others you may receive here on the forums as either helpful or have solved your problem, it's nice to mark them as Helpful or Solved, respectively, using the buttons in the reply.

Marking posts that are helpful or solve the problem as Helpful or Solved, respectively, helps others find answers and awards points to those who take the time to respond. See "Why reward points?".

Marking a topic as Answered indicates the question is resolved, but only you, as the person who asked the question, can mark posts as Helpful or Solved. The "Answered" status neither awards points nor provides an indication to others of the posts that were either helpful or solved the problem.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Reply
User profile for user: mauricemaurice
mauricemaurice Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

Apr 28, 2006 9:20 PM in response to Dr. Smoke

Dr. Smoke,

You said that you don't have any Classic apps in your internal HD. Instead, you keep them in an external Firewire disk.

I have one of these, and in one of its partitions, there is a backup of all my OS 9.2.2 files, including System Folder. However, I am not given the option to set this partition as a startup disk.

As I cannot restart in OS 9.2.2, I cannot bypass the OS X system.

I tried also to boot from an Apple OS 8.1 CD, but I got a question mark.

Is there really no way to boot from OS 9.2.2 ?


Regarding the marking as "Helpful" or "Solved" I couldn't see any place to click, either in the window where I read your posts (That would seem the logical place to position icons for these options) or in the window where I am writing this.
I will be pleased to make a mark as soon as I am told where to do it.
Reply
User profile for user: Dr. Smoke
Dr. Smoke
User level: Level 9
56,586 points

Apr 28, 2006 10:51 PM in response to mauricemaurice

You wrote:
"Is there really no way to boot from OS 9.2.2 ?"
Your Mac Mini cannot boot into anything but Mac OS X. See "Macintosh: Some Computers Only Start Up in Mac OS X." The new Intel-based Macs can't even use Classic.

You wrote:
"Regarding the marking as "Helpful" or "Solved" I couldn't see any place to click, either in the window where I read your posts (That would seem the logical place to position icons for these options) or in the window where I am writing this."
If you look back through this topic, in the "title area" of each post made by myself or another party, you should see two buttons, one labeled Helpful, the other labeled Solved.

For example, in this post, you should see those buttons to the right of the subject "Re: You're welcome!" of this post.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Reply

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Accessing my Excel 4.0 macros in a Mac mini

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up