Excel attachments open behind Lotus Notes

Hi,

A user encountered a problem where excel attachments open behind Notes. What actually happens is that when the spreadsheet is double clicked, the option to open it is there and when openis clicked on, excel does open but the screen goes back to Notes instead of excel. I tried testing by sending myself a test email (both from our company email account and my gmail account) - the issue was replicated when i opened the attachment in the mail sent from gmail. For the user, she said it happens to her even when the email is internal. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Mardell

Subject: Excel attachment opens BG/FG in alternating sequence

Let me add some more information to this thread. In my case I am using Notes client 8.5.3 Revision 201109.16.0921. The problem only appears to be with Excel attachments. Word attachments, for instance, always open in the foreground.

What’s really weird is that Excel attachments open alternately in background/foreground. For example:

Select Excel attachment, click Open, opens in BG

Switch to BG Excel file and close it.

Select same Excel attachment, click Open, opens in FG.

Close Excel file.

Select same Excel attachment, click Open, opens in BG.

Repeat ad infinitum. Keeps switching between BG and FG opening.

My test case is an email plus Excel attachment that I sent to someone else. I’m running the standard IBM Windows 7 image with Office 2010.

Regards, John M

Subject: Questions

Hi,Thanks for reporting your problem. I have tested your problem and cannot reproduce on my test machines running v8.5 Gold. Would you please answer these troubleshooting questions that may help to find a reproducible situation? Thanks in advance.

What version of MS Excel is installed on your local machine?

Are you running v8.5 Gold, or a Fix Pack or Hot Fix? Please specify if FP or HF.

Are you running the Notes Client Standard configuration (eclipse based?)?

When you experience this problem with Attachment from Gmail…

…is the focus problem consistent, or intermittent?

…does the problem occur for any Excel attachment? Or, just one specific attachment?

…does the problem occur for any OTHER attachment type?

…is embedded Sametime logged in? If yes, is a ST chat opened?

…if you have Sametime logged in, does the problem occur when you log out of Sametime?

…is Activities (Lotus Connections) installed in the Notes Sideshelf?

…is Feeds installed in the Notes Sideshelf?

…is there any other part of the Notes client that might be active and trying to process (therefore trying to set the focus back to the Notes client)?

…is there anything else unusual that could be running on the PC that might be trying to change focus on your PC?

Subject: Excel attachments open behind Lotus Notes…Focus

The behavior looks very similar to this technote

Notes Protocol URL Link May Not Open the Notes Client to the Foreground on Some Machines

Link

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP

Look for Tweak Ui

JYR

Subject: Excel attachments open behind Lotus Notes

Hi…

I installed tweak ui but it did not help much - did not make any difference at all.

The user sent in her reply:

Excel - 2003 standard

Notes - Release 8.5 standard

Right - I’ve had a look with gmail attachments and it seems to be inconsistent:

Word opens behind Lotus but then in front of it too sometimes?

Excel - opens in front of Lotus (i.e. as it should) but also behind it too?

Logging out of Sametime doesn’t change the inconsistency and I don’t think I have any feeds on?

Any other thoughts? Thanks very much.

Subject: [solved]

Our company had this bug opened on highest possible level at IBM. Even IBM customer satisfaction department was involved.

Their development said that it’s a bug in Excel, but they cannot really explain why this works with every other email program out there.

So, since they uneager to help they customer I’ve personally sacrified 20 hours of my life and found a workaround.

Go to registry and change these registry keys

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\ddeexec

The (Default) value for these keys is [open(“%1”)]. You can chain as many DDE commands as you want here, so just append [APP.ACTIVATE()] to the value. It should look like this: [open(“%1”)][APP.ACTIVATE()]

These registry keys are for XLS and XLSX file types. If you are using Excel to open CSV or other file types you should adjust their registry keys accordingly.

The only issue with this workaround is that the registry changes applies system wide, so sure if this doesn’t causes problems in other programs. Use them at your own risk.

Subject: Re: Excel attachments open behind Notes

Hi, thanks to both of you for replying. Here are my answers:

  • What version of MS Excel is installed on your local machine? - Excel2003 (11.830438221) SP3 (will check with user also)

  • Are you running v8.5 Gold, or a Fix Pack or Hot Fix? Please specify if FP or HF. - I have 8.5 FP1 (the other user may not have FP1 yet but is sure on 8.5)

  • Are you running the Notes Client Standard configuration (eclipse based?)? - Standard

  • When you experience this problem with Attachment from Gmail…

…is the focus problem consistent, or intermittent? - consistent

…does the problem occur for any Excel attachment? Or, just one specific attachment? - happens with the attachment sent from my gmail account. Attachments sent by my company (internal) mail account opens fine.

…does the problem occur for any OTHER attachment type? - no

…is embedded Sametime logged in? If yes, is a ST chat opened? - yes, logged in. but did not really notice if there was a chat session open.

…if you have Sametime logged in, does the problem occur when you log out of Sametime? - will give this a try

…is Activities (Lotus Connections) installed in the Notes Sideshelf? - yes

…is Feeds installed in the Notes Sideshelf? - yes

…is there any other part of the Notes client that might be active and trying to process (therefore trying to set the focus back to the Notes client)? - no

…is there anything else unusual that could be running on the PC that might be trying to change focus on your PC? - none

I will also take a look at that link the other forum member posted.

Many thanks!

Mardell