One of our users used RA to write her own report and requested EXL97 output format instead of the more usual EXL2K.

I was able to replicate what happened on her machine.

1. The report ran and then a request to download file WFServlet.xls appeared with a choice of OPEN or SAVE. I chose save and then the IE window of the report hung for about 5 minutes then the CPU usage of the machine rocketed.

2. On investigation this was a copy of Excel that was not even attached to an output window.

3. Even using task manager the job could not be shut down so I had to switch my machine off using the Start menu 'shut down' option.

4. When I tried that I got the following message:

unable to open file
res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\shdoclc.dll dnserror.htm

Eventually I had to use the power button to reboot my machine.

I told the user to switch to EXL2K and things worked fine.

There has been a recent upgrade from WIN2K to XP so that might be the cause of the problem but I am completely flummoxed by this.

If possible I will have to customise RA to remove EXL97 as an option for possible output or educate the users to always use EXL2K.

Does anyone know what this could be please?

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Server: WF 7.6.2 ( BID/Rcaster) Platform: W2003Server/IIS6/Tomcat/SQL Server repository Adapters: SQL Server 2000/Oracle 9.2
Desktop: Dev Studio 765/XP/Office 2003 Applications: IFS/Jobscope/Maximo

I don't know why you are getting the error but I would definitely educate your users to use EXL2K. I had one user complaining because her formatting was all messed up and when she switched to EXL2K from EXL97, her problems went away.

EXL97 has very limited formatting available. It also has less capacity than EXL2K, which may be why it locked up. When that happens and you try to shut down from task manager, you also have to go into PROCESSES and shut down EXCEL. Unfortunately, we have users that are still running 97, so I have to use it as an option.

hamm01i, ginny: yes agreed users to be educated to use exl2k (this way they get headings, calculations etc.)..
o one other trick that 'might' help as long as no other reports in that environment must use excel vs. exl2k . try setting in profile for that user WIHT a 'LET' statement in effect, e.g.

LET FORMAT EXCEL = FORMAT EXL2K
END

ira aix 533 wf 5.3.6