Mavericks, MS Excel (2008), Dock

Are your tags the same color? I have the same issue and "Labels" are now "Tags" and they are all orange.

The only solution I've found is that when you click on the dock icon command-click, which opens the finder location of the file, and then open the file in the finder. It's specific to opening things to the dock--very frustrating!

Brian- Thank you for your post, having the exact same Excel 2008 problem here. Files were used from the dock on a regular basis with no issues until upgrading to OS 10.9. I am only running into it with Excel, but those are the only files I have in the dock so I can't say for sure that it isn't happening with anything else.

I installed Mavericks yesterday and had exactly the same problem this morning. I use the Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my blood pressure. Fortunately I had already taken it, because it took me 15 minutes to save the file again where I could find it, and that made me late for work. Grrr.

Eventually, I put the folder containing the spreadsheet into the dock. I start a new sheet every year and I have 10 of them now, so this is the right time to make that change permanent. It only means one extra click and the sheet opens under its proper name and it saves properly.

I suspect that holding down the ALT or CMD key while clicking on the Excel icon might do the trick. There's something in the back of my mind about being able to do that in other circumstances to open a copy of the sheet, and it's possible that the Mavs dock has somehow swapped that toggle, which would mean that Excel is behaving normally. I shall try that when I get home, unless somebody else does it first and reports back here.

Holding down the Cmd key while clicking the Excel icon in the Dock reveals the item in the Finder.

Holding down Option seems to have no effect.

Holding down Shift and Control turns on Dock magnification, if it's already turned off. Whoa! 🙂

-Ken

Ah yes. I tried fairly recently without success, so whatever I thought was there in the back of my mind was some kind of red herring. Then I saw your message, Ken, before I had got round to making my own report.

Still, it's nice to have a fairly easy workround. :-/

Same issue. So glad to hear...I guess...that I'm not alone. I assumed I was doing something wrong. If I open and save the Excel file in Finder, there is no issue. It's ONLY when I'm opening the same file from the Dock. A real pain since I keep about three files in my Dock because of the frequency I use them. Hope someone can suggest a fix. Thanks!

Well, not quite a solution, but a work-around that works for me: Remove your Excel file from your Dock. Make an alias of the original file and move the alias to the Desktop. Double-clicking the alias opens the original file. Place the alias close to the Dock and it's almost as good.

Thank you to everyone on this thread. I've been having the same issue with Word documents on my dock since Mavericks upgrade. Glad to know about the folder and the command-click ideas.

There is a semi quick fix... I was reading it on another forum.

When you have a grey screen or black (not blue), close the lid and place it in your bag. What happens is that the board will over-heat and semi re-solder itself, the MBP as an emergency shutdown feature if it gets too hot. Once it shuts down, allow it to cool and restart, if it doesn't work, repeat the process. I know this seems a little drastic, I was nervous the first time I did it. The MBP seems to work fine until it gets buggy again, then I just repeat the process. It may take a few over-heat cycles to get it to work right, but at least it works and I'm actually able to use my MBP again.

Just had the same problem having moved some excel files from an old iBook to a new MBP with 10.9.

Very annoying (although maybe a Microsoft problem)

Hope a fix is found

This problem continues in Yosemite, not just Mavericks.

Have same problem on MacBook Pro and 10.10.5, using Office for Mac 2008.

Just want to recap the three work-arounds, all worked for me.

1. Create a folder (I used the same name as the document plus option-f); put the document you want available in the dock into that folder; put the folder in your dock (two clicks to open).

2. Put document in the dock; control-click document and chose "open in finder" (three clicks to open).

3. Put document on your desktop (one click to open).