Cannot set SmartSelect for Microsoft Excel

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by phesopheon, Nov 25, 2008.

  1. phesopheon

    phesopheon Member

    Messages:
    73
    I cannot get .xls to map to MS Excel. I'm running PD4 and XP SP3 in coherence mode. I start Excel, right click the excel icon and click SmartSelect. .xls files are mapped to the finder. I click the radio button for .xls files to set it to MS Excel and click OK.

    Then I immedately, without doing anything else, right click the excel icon and click SmartSelect. .xls files are set back to the finder. There seems to be no way to get them to remain selected to excel.

    Any ideas?

    Paul
     
  2. STim

    STim Bit poster

    Messages:
    942
    Please try:

    1. Browse to Applications menu and select "Populate" for Shared Mac Applications.
    2. Wait a dozen of seconds.
    3. Reattempt setting .xls association and check if it works.
    4. If it doesn't, send us (Help->Report a problem) and write its ID here.

    Thank you
     
  3. phesopheon

    phesopheon Member

    Messages:
    73
    I tried your suggestion. No change. Problem has been reported. ID is 16321.

    Just to be clear: I am running MS Excel 2003 in XP.

    Paul
     
  4. STim

    STim Bit poster

    Messages:
    942
    Paul,

    Thank you.

    Do you see guest's Microsoft Excel as a choice if you right-click any .xls document in Mac and select "Open With..."?
     
  5. phesopheon

    phesopheon Member

    Messages:
    73
    OK, you got me really close. And I have been able to complete the last steps to get it working. There is still a product problem because it should work from the SmartSelect interface discussed above. But here is the work around.

    To answer your question, I have two items in "open with":

    Microsoft Office Excel (default) (3.2)
    Microsoft Office Excel (5.9)

    Interestingly, the second entry works. The first does not.

    So, I right clicked the .xls file in Mac and selected "Get Info". I then changed "Open With" from there to set it to Microsoft Office Excel (5.9) and then clicked "change all..."

    This fixed the problem. Now the two items in open with are:


    Microsoft Office Excel (default) (5.9)
    Microsoft Office Excel (3.2)

    And now double clicking the file from Mac finder opens the document in excel in parallels! The SmartSelect setting is also correct. The SmartSelect setting now says to use the windows application Microsoft Office Excel.

    The SmartSelect feature is still broken. It cannot be changed back to finder (same problem as originally reported), but at least it works now the way that I want it to so this is an acceptable work around.

    Paul

    Paul
     
  6. MNewkirk

    MNewkirk Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    Somewhat of the same problem.....

    I tried using SmartSelect as well - it said it updated all the applications, and when I use "Open With" I have "Microsoft Office Excel" listed. I updated my xls files to use this app.

    Now when I double click on an XLS file, I see the Parallels Excel attempt to open (bounces on my dock) but then immediately shuts down again. No error message given.
     
  7. MNewkirk

    MNewkirk Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    Update: Smartselect.....

    Note - This only appears to be malfunctioning with Microsoft Excel (so far). I was able to open another file through finder... (PAF extention / Personal Ancestory File) and it opened up fine in Parallels.
     
  8. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

    Messages:
    6,333
    Try to repopulate Windows Applications for Mac OS
    Also you can delate Windows Applications folder from inside pvm bundle before repopulation
     
  9. MNewkirk

    MNewkirk Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    Attempted actions mentioned above.
    1) Deleted all listed applications in the Windows Application folder of the PVM
    2) Re-ran the "Populate" under the Windows Shared Applications

    Result: Same indications as listed above. When right clicking on Microsoft Office items (PPT, DOC, XLS, etc), Windows Office Applications are not listed. Up to this point.. it appears only to be office files.
     
  10. MNewkirk

    MNewkirk Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    I have XLS and DOC both assigned to Windows Office now... but again, when double-clicking on either of these types in Finder, the associated office app in parallels bounces briefly and then immediately closes back out. The app doesn't appear to ever succesfully launch. I then tried to have the application open prior to the double click. In this case, nothing happens.
     
  11. Perpendiculars

    Perpendiculars Bit poster

    Messages:
    6
    I reverted back to PD3 because of too many problems with PD4. Now when I try to open a document like Word on the Mac side I get this warning:

    The "Microsoft Office Word" application cannot be started. This Windows application cannot be started because Parallels Desktop was not found on your Mac.

    I've tried to delete and populate the app folder several times with no luck.
     
  12. MNewkirk

    MNewkirk Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    PD4 has been a welcomed upgrade for me. Just a nuisance when it comes to integration with Finder.
     
  13. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

    Messages:
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    Please check in Documents/Parallels there should be file with pvm extension, Right click show package contents and delete there Windows Applications folder
     
  14. MNewkirk

    MNewkirk Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    Hi John - I understood these directions from your previous post and took them. It allowed me to successfully assoicate the programs to the extensions. Now the problem is that when a file is double clicked in Mac's Finder (example: document1.xls), Parallels *attempts* to open Microsoft Excel, but it appears as if the application fails to initialize (no splash screen - only the bouncing icon on my dock for a brief second or two). Another interesting point to note: it only seems to affect Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc), and I as one of the other users on this thread, am using Office 2003. Opening the application and using File -> Open works fine.
     
  15. MNewkirk

    MNewkirk Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    Corrections to my statement above:

    Microsoft Excel: associated with XLS successfully. Will not open files directly from finder.
    Microsoft Word: associated with Doc successfully. Will open files directly from finder
    Microsoft PowerPoint: could not associate. Not available in list of applications (after corrective actions)
     
  16. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

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