Today’s helpdesk call is a problem I have been asked about several times lately. It is one of those issues that can drive a technical support pro crazy because it only effects some users, happens apparently for no reason, and sometimes fixes itself.
The problem begins when a user has an issue opening files from SharePoint. The files open, that isn’t the problem, it’s just that no matter what the user does the file opens as read only. If the user is selects a MS Word document in a SharePoint document library and select ‘Edit in Microsoft Word’ they may get an error like this:
'Edit Document' requires a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible application and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or greater.
or:
'Edit Document' requires a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible application and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater.
The frustration begins with the fact that both IE5/6 and Microsoft Office XP or greater are already installed! You might also hear things like “It used to work! ” and “It works for other people!”. After a quick trip to Google this looks like an easy fix. Normally you will find the right Microsoft KB article in just a few seconds ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833714 ).
To summarize the solutions in KB833714:
First, if you don’t have Office XP or later, buy it and install it, pretty obvious.
If you already have Office XP or later make sure the feature that integrates with SharePoint is installed.
For Office XP the component “Microsoft SharePoint Support” is the one you are looking for– if it is not installed, install it.
For Office 2003 and 2007 the component is renamed “Microsoft SharePoint Services Support” but still make sure it is installed.
The KB article doesn’t mention this but you can also try uninstalling/reinstalling this component, if it is already in place.
The final method suggested by the KB article has to do with the DLL that handles SharePoint integration. If the steps above don’t solve your problem try unregistering and registering owssupp.dll.
The owssupp.dll is usually located in :
[Drive Letter]:\Program files\Microsoft Office\Office10 (for MS Office XP)
[Drive Letter]:\Program files\Microsoft Office\Office11 (for MS Office 2003)
[Drive Letter]:\Program files\Microsoft Office\Office12 (for MS Office 2007)
To unregister the DLL you go to the command line, cd to the directory that is appropriate for your version of Office and type:
regsvr32 -u owssupp.dll
To register (or re-register) the DLL you type:
regsvr32 owssupp.dll
and we get,
DllRegisterServer in owssupp.dll failed. Return code was: 0x80070716
So, Microsoft is out of ideas and our problem is still here, not good. I’ll pause for a moment while you pound your head against the wall.
Luckily I have spent a little time banging my head against the wall on this issue as well and I think I may have a few other tricks to try.
First, do you remember the different directories that Office can be installed in, depending on the version? It turns out that several people with this problem have upgraded from Office XP or 2003 to a more current version. As far as I can tell the spontaneous break seems to happen during Office updates and some MS Windows Updates. What we need to do is check to see if there are any leftover directories from previous installs of Office. In the [Drive Letter]:\Program files\Microsoft Office\ directory if you have more than one Office## (10, 11, or 12) directory find whichever one has a copy of owssupp.dll in it. Copy the owssupp.dll file into the directory that doesn’t have one. Now check to see if you can edit files from SharePoint without any trouble.
Second when you have tried all of the steps above you may be overlooking the obvious when you test the “Edit” function. Make sure you keep your eyes open for an ActiveX control warning in IE and that you allow the owssupp.dll to do its job.
The third and most hated option for dealing with this problem is the old standby, uninstall Microsoft Office, delete all of its directories, reboot, and reinstall MS Office. Don’t you hate it when that works?
14 comments:
Great Post, Thanks
Thanks, the trick of copying the DLL fixed the problem for me. I believe it was due to installing, then uninstalling MS Sharepoint Designer 2007. I had Office 2003 installed at the eime. When I looked I saw an Office12 directory, so I copied it from Office11 and it worked!
Copying the DLL worked for me, MS really sucks
i had the same problem and wiped and reloaded office 2003 and still did not work. I finally went to one of the computers that was working and get the dll from it then copy it to the office 11 folder unregister the dll and reregister i got the errors that they are talking about with regsvr32 but if you ignore them it works fine.
Got MS Office 2007 operating on Server 2008 using MOSS 2007 - out of 15 pages offering help on this issue NOTHING has worked.
I've just had a user complain that this is happening to them.
They've only ever had Office 2007.
When I finally managed to remote to their computer, she hadn't clicked to install the ActiveX control to enable the link between the server and the local office installation. As soon as I did that the spreadsheet that she couldn't open, opened!
Just a thought. Is the ActiveX component installed?
Are ActiveX controls allowed in IE?
N03L.
We have a weird thing happening here, but producing the same dreaded error message. A user has Office 2003 installed and can open and edit documents on our local SP server just fine. When he tries to go to a corporate SP server, the error message pops up. My Office 2007 works fine both places. The only thing I noticed that's unusual is that, as my 2007 Excel is opening, I get prompted for my connection credentials to the corp server. Could 2003's inability to handle the login prompt be what's throwing the error message? As I said, he can open/edit docs on our local SP server just fine, so I don't htink it's his Office install. Thanks for any help you can give.
Great blog. I've also been banging my head on my desk for 2 or 3 hours on this one, tried all the KB methods etc. to no avail.
Comment from N03L "Just a thought. Is the ActiveX component installed?
Are ActiveX controls allowed in IE?" twigged on me, so in IE went to Tools/Internet Options/Programs/Manage Add-ons, scrolled down the list and found 2 entries for OWSSUPP.DLL.
SharePoint Stssync Handler was enabled, but SharePoint OpenDocuments Class was disabled.
Enabled it, re-started IE and now I can edit Word and Excel docs in Sharepoint.
Thanks guys!
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I uninstalled IE8 ans installed IE9 and it works now.
W7 64bit + MSoffice 2007
i think problem was with vrowser, not with office installation. (in my case at least)
I had a similar problem where I got the "'Edit Document' requires..." when trying to edit an Excel doc in a SP library using IE. Installing the Office Tools did not work, nor did registering owssupp.dll.
The problem was that the user was using 64bit IE! When they switch to use 32bit IE - all works fine.
Thanks Amanda! Fixed it for me.
Thanks for the comprehensive notes. Tried it all, nothing worked, but you gave me a clue...
The ActiveX control was installed, but for some reason marked as disabled in the "Manage Add-ons" dialog. Enabled it and it worked.
Surprise!
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is in fact fastidious, all can simply understand it, Thanks a lot.
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