Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:29:07 Z

When I try to edit a list in datasheet view I receive the following error:

The list cannot be displayed in Datasheet view for one or more of the following reasons: A datasheet component compatible with Windows SharePoint Services is not installed, your browser does not support ActiveX controls, or support for ActiveX controls is disabled.

This worked as of 2 or 3 weeks ago ( I do not remember the last time I tried it), and I cannot think of anything that has really changed locally or on the server. Other users have no issues.

I have office 2003 with the SP parts installed. It is in my trusted site list and security is set to custom off a low template. All activeX controls are set to "allow" for the zone. I am also running IE 7 and SharePoint designer 2007, but both of these have been while it was working.

Could a Windows or Office update have caused the problem?

Any ideas?

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:34:05 Z

I am having the exact same problem. Does anyone know the solution?

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:01:45 Z

No solution found ! It happens to me just on one PC. Office reinstalled but no joy!

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 11:47:41 Z

Try "Repair Office installation". May help.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 12:20:00 Z

It was the first thing I made. It didn't help.

Probably some unregistered dll ?

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 12:59:31 Z

Hi,

I ounce faced this problem when using wss 2.0. I installed the full office then and it was fixed.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:32:56 Z

Found a link at http://wss.collutions.com/Lists/FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=253

If you add the registry key mentioned in the thread the problem will be fixed....

Section III - Administration

Question:

III.79 - I am running Office 2003 on my client - why can't I see "Edit in Datasheet View"?

The papers that Microsoft at present (June 2004) have comparing what you get with Office 2000; Office XP and Office 2003 say that "Edit in Datasheet View" is a function of Office 2003.

It is but only if you are running Office 2003 Professional.

It is not included in either Office 2003 Standard or Office 2003 Small Business Edition.

Mark Pfeifer points out that the missing component is the "Microsoft Office List Datasheet Component".

Thanks to him for prompting me to add this FAQ item.

Woody Windischman also sent me this address where it is mentioned

http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/functionality.mspx

"This page compares some of the functionality in different Office 2003 Editions. Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 and Microsoft Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003 offer some enhanced functionality."

------------

Finally, a source that prefers to remain anonymous told me that it is possible to get Edit in Datasheet to work with Office 2003 Business Edition (*note that Monty extends this to Standard Edition*) by making a registry change. Here's his (or her!) text.

"It seems that if you set:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\ProductVersion]
"ProInfo"=dword:00000001

on a machine with Office SBE you don't even need to exit IE. The next time you click on "Edit in Datasheet", off you go."

Monty sent me this confirmation that this works and a comment on the legality of doing this

We (my client) have MSDN Universal Subscriptions and called Microsoft on this issue. Their Licensing group has no reference to this in their marketing, sales, licensing, or product-selection guides.

Their technical team also has no reference materials on this feature that would impact product selection. in short, Microsoft appears to not take an official position on this.

All the software is loaded with Office2003 Standard and the ActiveX control to make this feature work. the Registry Key change referenced in your article works very well for my client.

It basically toggles the feature on and off. unless anyone can reference a Microsoft communication that officially states this feature as legally only available to Office Pro users, a registry change like this cannot violate your licensing agreement with Microsoft.

Thanks, Monty. I'm sure that will ease people's worries.

Alex Angas points out that the KB article

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909506

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 18:05:07 Z

Please in future do not quote entire texts from the WSS FAQ sites.

I spend a lot of time collecting this information and I don't of course mind you refering to the fact that an item there (with URL as you wrote) has helped you to be able to solve your problem and *in brief* saying what you did.

However the monthly costs of running the two WSS FAQ sites is paid for through money received from the Google ads on them. If you quote the entire text here there is no reason for people to go to the site and they will not see those ads.

Thank you for your cooperation in future !

Mike Walsh

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 18:09:33 Z

The registry has already the correct key . Office is Pro.

It didn't help

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:27:09 Z

I encountered this issue after Project 2007 was installed on my computer. If I make changes to the registry telling it I'm using Office 2003 Pro, then I'm guessing that any functionality that relies on a setting of Office 2007 Pro won't work.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Tue, 01 May 2007 19:12:30 Z

I have the same issue and followed the same path...it worked until I installed Project Pro 2007.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 07:06:03 Z

I have the same problem and I fixed it once. ( I have Office pro 2003 but Outlook 2007) I had found a note on the Internet re copying a dll from the Office 11 directory to the Office 12 directory. Un firtunately I later ran into a problem with my Office installation (kept asking for Office Key) and later with my Outlook (caused by add-ins) and re-installed Outlook and broke it again. I am looking but you might find it yourself. It's a single DLL and replacing the 12 version with the 11 version seems to point SP to the right component.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 11:16:25 Z

I encountered the same problem. I fixed it by uninstalling Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007. I posted a bug report to Microsoft about this. I thought Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 caused the problem, but when I read all above, there is more which seems to cause the issue. Maybe it is caused by a mix of Office products being installed? Cause I was having InfoPath 2007 installed together with the 2003 products of Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint).

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:12:10 Z

We have the same problem.

When we install Project2k7 Edit in datasheet breaks.

Moving to Office2k7 is not an option. We have to stay with 2k3 and just use Project2k7.

Can someone confirm which dll + registry entries are used to drive this functionality?

Seems to be the STSLIST.DLL in OFFICE11 folder?

Is that correct?

If so, then it is there but the functionality isnt.

We have to resolve this or we may have to pull the plug on our project server installaiton

Al.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:07:49 Z

try to "repair" office 2k3 installation

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 02:04:41 Z

Unfortunately repairing office 2003 causes IE to crash completely when accessing ANY sharepoint list - which is worse than not having the 'edit in datasheet' function.

Also tried copying STSLIST.dll from the office11 directlty to the office12 directory without sucess.

Can anyone confirm WHICH dll sharepoint is trying to use to render the 'edit in datasheet' functionality when you have:

a) Office 2003

b) Office 2007

components installed?

Al.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:48:36 Z

We had the same issue with 2007 Project Standard and Office 2003 Professional. We also received errors in datasheet mode. To recap, the solution after 2 hours with Microsoft Support (which was great by the way - thank you Josh) was to go into Project 2007 and remove the option under Tools for Sharepoint Service Support (Not Available) 2) Rerun the Office 2003 install - but select the option to REINSTALL!

Note: The problem can not be prevented by not installing the Sharepoint Service Support on the initial install. You, unfortunately have to go through the Repair (Reinstall option) for Office 2003.

This is happening because the 2007 version of the datasheet control is installed

along side of the 2003 version. This same problem will happen if you install ANY

Office 2007 application (Publisher, Visio, Project, stand alone Excel, etc)

side-by-side with Office 2003.

Resolution

================

1. Start Project Professional 2007 installation

2. Provide the Product Key and Click Continue

3. Click Customize

4. Under “Microsoft Office” expand the third option “Office Tools”

5. Select “Windows Share point Service Support” and set it to “Not Available”

(Windows Share point service support has two components “Microsoft Office

Access Web Datasheet Component” and “Windows Share point Service Support” which

will be disabled) and Click “Install Now”

6. Once the installation is done, click Close.

7. Re-run Office 2003, selecting Repair but then select the option to reinstall!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Do not repair)

Hope this helps!!!!!!!!

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:15:03 Z

I ran across the crashing IE issue last week and was able to fix it quickly and easily by running the hotfix found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938888. More info about what's going on under the hood in regards to the problem is described at http://www.sharepointblogs.com/johnwpowell/archive/2007/07/10/browser-crash-when-opening-office-documents-from-sharepoint.aspx. After I ran the hotfix and found it worked, the employee ran a re-install of Office 2003 Pro: things started breaking again (could not edit in datasheet, not getting dialog box for edit/read-only when opening Office doc from SharePoint, and/or IE crashing). I've made several attempts at repairing Office 2003 and 2007, re-installing Office 2003 and 2007, and disabling/enabling the SharePoint Services Support feature in Office 2003 and 2007 in various different orders, but to no avail. There's got to be some magic solution that will work, but I have yet to find one that will fix all three of the following problems:

Internet Explorer crashes: Haven't seen any indication that version of IE matters on this (6 or 7). If you get the 'unable to edit datasheet' error, good chance that the browser may crash on the next command (back button, link click, etc.).
"Unable to edit datasheet..." error in SharePoint (we're using MOSS 2007)
Opening Office document with option for read-only or edit: With Office 2007 components installed, you should receive a dialog asking if you want to open the file in read-only or edit mode. When the dialog does not appear, the file is always opened read-only. Though, when this happens, you can just save the file back to where you opened it from using "Save As..." (assuming check-out is not required).

Seems like it's just time to uninstall all Office components--2003 and 2007--and start over.

The more I read about this issue and run into it--whether it be in MOSS 2007 or SharePoint 2003--the more I believe it has to do with mixed installs of Office (2003 and 2007) and, most importantly, the order in which the installs/repairs/reinstalls have occured. I'm also wondering if the Microsoft Updates applying to Office will also trigger the problem (would certainly explain the cases where everything was working great one day and then dead the next without any user-made changes). Hypothetically, a Microsoft Update for Office could cause the registry and dll changes people talk about in their fixes for the problem (fixes which often don't work for everyone).

Whenever an employee comes to me with this problem, my first question to them is, "Do you have parts of Office 2003 and 2007 installed?" Invariably, they say yes. My first response is then, "Ah, yes! Well, unfortunately Office 2003 and 2007 don't play together very well."

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:02:34 Z

My setup is Microsoft Office Server 2007 Entreprise and Microsoft Office 2007 Entreprise and I have problems with stslist.dll when I open a document library in datasheet view.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 11:24:20 Z

Dear All,

My SharePoint document is showing problem individually for me despite of having administrator rights during the editing in data sheet because it opens in read only mode. When i choose the builtin view like my submission and Approve/Reject then it works otherwise it's not showing editing mode in other views. The problem is only appearing in some doc. libraries not for the entire site.

Best Regards,

Hina.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:26:27 Z

As Sjoert Ebben wrote in his blog:

Content approval blocking edit in datasheet view

http://sjoere.blogspot.com/2007/05/content-approval-blocking-edit-in.html

We had problem with this issue too. Sad, but true...

Peter Holpar

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:33:28 Z

what was the resolution to this problem?

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:07:16 Z

Ladies and Gentleman.

After long deliberation and research on this problem I have finallly found a solution. Please download the Microsoft Office 2003 Web Components and install them re-open the page and all will work just fine.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:46:41 Z

After trying all the differents sollution proposed by peoples, i try this one that work for me:

After asking around in the SharePoint Community and finally asking Microsoft Support (who turned out to be very helpful – many thanks!), we found the following solution on how to display the datasheet view:
1.       Close Internet Explorer
2.       Start -> Run… -> “regedit” (without quotation marks)
3.       In the Registry Editor, delete the following Folder (sub-key)…
Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility
Sub-Key: {65BCBEE4-7728-41A0-97BE-14E1CAE36AAE}
4.       Start Internet Explorer and open SharePoint content in the Datasheet View

Thanks

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 09:04:44 Z

If you're running WSS 2.0 and applied SP3 and Edit in datasheet isn't working after that you can get the functionality back by adding a javascript function to OWS.js

Add:

function RenderActiveX(str) {

document.write(str);

}

into OWS.js and restart IIS and refresh your browser.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:00:52 Z

I solved this problem yesterday. You need Access installed. I used Access 2007. After I installed Access it worked fine. I didnt use anything else like word or excel to narrow down exacly what it was.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:17:58 Z

Well not to confuse matters even more, but this edit in datasheet problem is happening to me and here is what I have on my computer: All components of Office 2007, IE 7, and SharePoint Designer & Frontpage 2003. Edit in Datasheet does not work on WSS 2.0 portal but does on WSS 3.0 portal. This just started about a month ago and I have been using IE 7 & Office 2007 for a long time. I do not have that registry key mentioned in my IE ActiveX Compatibility but only in: Windows --> Current Version --> Ext --> PreApproved. So I don't want to delete that key if it is not the right one. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Thu, 08 May 2008 10:34:59 Z

Open the file ows.js (Path: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033) and search for the Method PortalPinToMyPage. After this insert following javascript code:
function RenderActiveX(str) { document.write(str); }

That’s it. Don’t forget to make an iisreset and refresh your browser after saving the file…

For more details goto http://www.mg2.de/sharepoint-2003/service-pack-3/

Piyush

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:08:15 Z

THis concerns WSS 3.0 not 2.0, therefoer I don't think this solution is relevent here.

I'm getting this issue with a couple of users whicch I look after. Despite everybody having Office 2003 standard, all but two can use the datasheet view. How is that even possible because i've read variously that you need Office 2003 pro as a minimum to get this to work?

When i've been researching, this seems to be the obvious answer, but the fact that it was working previously is really confusing. I'm thinking that hotfixes are causing this issues as it happens every month or so.

Thanks,

R
T

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:00:24 Z

I was having this same problem on 2 different pc's with nothing in common. Tried everything, after giving up on a fix one of the pc's had another issue with an 3rd party application and the support person showed us this fix for that problem. It also fixed the sharepoint problems.

How to Repair MDAC 2.8 Under Windows XP with SP2 Installed

General Information

Windows XP with Service Pack 2 contains MDAC version 2.81, which is currently not available for download at the Microsoft Web site as a standalone installation. If you try to install MDAC 2.8, which is the latest available standalone download of MDAC, you will receive a message that you already have a newer version of MDAC installed. Therefore, under Windows XP SP2, you must manually repair MDAC 2.81 as outlined below.

How to Repair MDAC 2.81 under Windows XP with SP2

Open the folder C:\Windows\inf and locate the file mdac.inf.
Note: Your Windows folder could be named differently, e.g. C:\WinXP.
Right-click the file mdac.inf and click Install.
When prompted for a location, point to C:\Windows\servicepackfiles\i386.
When prompted for the file handler.reg, either point to C:\Program files\Common files\System\msadc, or put the Windows XP CD in your CD-ROM drive.

This reinstalls / repairs MDAC 2.81 under Windows XP SP2.
this information came from: http://www.timemeter.com/support/mdac_xp_sp2.shtml

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:08:49 Z

PHolpar said:

As Sjoert Ebben wrote in his blog:

Content approval blocking edit in datasheet view

http://sjoere.blogspot.com/2007/05/content-approval-blocking-edit-in.html

We had problem with this issue too. Sad, but true...

Peter Holpar

Also, you could go into Approve/Reject View, then 'Edit in Datasheet' and then Edit/Delete your items.

Maxim

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:04:54 Z

While I tried to search for some solution, I found that lot of people are facing this problem.

There are many solutions that worked for them and there are many of them for them nothing worked actually.

There are some possible solutions that work. These are not found by me. I'm just trying to put them at one place.

Solutions: SharePoint datasheet view doesn't work

Around 7 solutions. If you know more then please share.

Ideas are best when they are fresh...

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Fri, 01 May 2009 11:34:41 Z

Actually - I found it very useful they quoted the whole article - Barracuda Web Filter is blocking your site, and the link is broken, so including the full text is extremely useful.

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:53:53 Z

In case everyone has tried out everything and nothing has worked...

I am running Vista enterprise with Office Pro 2007 with IE7. I did have Office 2003 Excel and Word components installed, and Office 2003 Web Components as well, but I uninstalled them and this was when the problems started. I tried everything that has been mentioned above to no avail, then a colleague found this MS site to reset IE7. To my delight and shock it worked, but it seems as though everyone here has slightly differing setups and issues!
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923737

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:23:22 Z

I know this thread is a bit old, but we continue to have the "cannot be displayed in Datasheet view" that is described above. Unfortunately, I've attempted to try the suggestions that have been outlined in this thread, but none have seemed to make a difference. We are noticing something different than what has been posted and I am hoping that maybe this will trigger someone to think of something to help with this problem.

Our scenario is as follows:

-Multiple servers running Server 2008 and Citrix XenApp
-Office 2003 SP3
-Office 2003 Web Components
-NO Office 2007 components other than the compatibility pack (not sure if this counts as a 2007 component or not)
-IE 7
-WSS 3.0 on a seperate 2008 server

Here's what we are noticing... A user logs into a Citrix/Terminal Session on a server. First thing they do is start Outlook to check their email. After this, they log into the WSS 3.0 site and attempt to view a grid in Datasheet view. Bam. "The list cannot be displayed in Datasheet view" Here's the interesting part...if they leave IE open but close Outlook, it will then allow them to view the grid in Datasheet view. This will work as long as IE is not closed and will continue to work even if they restart Outlook.

It sounds like Outlook is grabbing a hold of something and not letting go, in-turn preventing WSS from being able to use the Datasheet control.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

Unable to edit in datasheet - WSS 3.0

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 07:18:34 Z

Kid,
THANK you for the hint.....

Have been fighting this thinking it was ActiveX and my doofus helpless desk !

I was able to recreate your results....

With Outlook open - cannot edit in datasheet view....
close Outlook and it's fine ....

IE 6
SP 3

MS Office/Access pro

BUT, it is not consistent !!! MOST times Edit in Datasheet fails.... but think you are certainly onto something ....

Now, what is it ???? :) Hello Mr MS ?!? :-}