Cannot Insert Excel in Word with Office 365

When adding an Excel object in Word, it fails and returns the following error:
The program used to create this object is Excel. That program is either not installed on your computer or it is not responding. To edit this object, install Excel or ensure that any dialog boxes in Excel are closed.

I have Excel installed and this feature in Word was functional ~3 days ago when I last used it. There have been no system changes or changes to my system state between the last known good and today's fault.

I've tried using the feature with Excel opened, closed and after restarting my computer, Excel closed and opened for a total of 4 independent tests and the same error as above.
I can insert tables and quick tables, but not Excel spreadsheet, not even with a fresh blank document after closing the program and restarting the computer.
I only have 1 instance of Office installed on my computer.
I only have one MS Account with the full Office 365 suite.
I am the only person with access to my computer.

Windows Defender and Malwarebytes do not detect any issues with my computer. All updates and drivers are current at the time of writing this question.

Excel operates without issue as a standalone program, however I would like to add an excel sheet into my word document like I could a few days ago.

Office: A suite of Microsoft productivity software that supports common business tasks, including word processing, email, presentations, and data management and analysis. Development: The process of researching, productizing, and refining new or existing technologies.

Word: A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents. Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.

Hey, just a quick check that worked for me: Try to change the Excel file name to one shorter and simpler. As stupid as that. Microsoft has a serious problem with error messages, they are crap and so often misguide the user. Like programs saying "Not responding" when they are actually calculating something. Or Outlook saying that "the OST file is corrupted because the program was closed improperly" but you've actually reached the file size limit. Microsoft products are full of incorrect error messages that do not help at all. Please Microsoft, invest a little bit in correct error messages that actually help the user.

I did an online repair of office, disabled all plugins for both word & excel, and reboot and that fixed it for me.

This is an updated comment Nothing I have tried has continued to work. I've tried changing settings, running a repair, uninstalling & reinstalling, I spent more money and paid for a 365 subscription and installed that, I updated my OS from Windows 10 pro to 11 Pro, then I called MS tech support and we tried everything all over again without any success. I've wasted well over 20 hours trying to get this working correctly, and all MS could tell me was, "it'll be fixed in the next update." The updates have come and gone and still it's not working. I have half a mind to dig out an old version of MS Office and install that.

7 answers

I used this suggestion as my starting point, but it's a more indepth process than simply saying "Run as Administrator" as you can temporarily run as and admin, or you can permanently, and it's the latter plus. Again see the comment below.

• Please go to Excel > Options > Advanced > General part, make sure "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)" is not ticked.
• Then go to Add-ins under Advanced option> Manage, COM add-ins > Go, clear the check boxes for any enabled COM add-ins, select OK, then check this issue again.
• Besides, I suggest you right-click the Word and Excel icons on the desktop, and click Compatibility tab, ensure the box of "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" is not ticked too.
• Temporarily disable Malwarebytes for a test.
• If these steps above do not work, it's recmmended to perfer an Online Repair for Office to have a check.

Any updates, please let me know.

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@Quentin Styger
I am checking this thread, do you have any updates?
If yes, please feel free to post back,

Hi There
I am experiencing the exact same issue. Have removed Office 365 and re-installed but still the same when I insert an Excel Link into a Word doc.
Please help
Louise

I was trying the mailing function in my Word document, using an external Excel file for reference.
After several saved version on the same One drive folder(yyy_01.docx, yyy_02.docx, yyy_03.docx. ), I changed my mind and decided to look for macros instead of the mail merge due to limitations.
Instead of restarting from scratch, I kept my last version and removed any reference to that external Excel file, then again save a new version of my Word document to the same folder.
Then I tried to insert an Excel file and this is where I started receiving the error message.
The only way a was able to get around this, was to save my Word document to another folder.
If I put a copy of the new document that now works back to that same folder(even sub folder), it fails again.

Hi to all im new here and this is my first answer in my life and hope that this can help you to solve the problem In my PC for the issue reported : "The program used to create this object is Excel. That program is either not installed on your computer or it is not responding. To edit this object, install Excel or ensure that any dialog boxes in Excel are closed" I tried to log into the system on my pc as a different user and inserting excel or other object, using the command in word, it go. The problem was related to my local profile on win10 x64 bit. So i logged to the system as Administrator. on Control Panel ->System -> Advanced system settings->on Advanced profile tab-> user profile -> select Settings
you'll verify users created on operating system. I verified that my profile was corrupted and "Copy to" command was disabled. Using windows explorer under C:\User\MyUser I tried to do manually backup of my profile copying Desktop, Documents, Download, Favorites (Browser) and Hidden system folder "Local" under "Appdata" in "user" profile folder. After the backup of my profile always as Administrator on the system using the same path
Control Panel ->System -> Advanced system settings->on Advanced profile tab-> user profile -> Settings
I selected my Account and pressed on "Delete". Restart the PC and tried log in to the system, using my personal Microsoft Account.
I opened a new word document and using insert function of Word i have inserted Excel Worksheet, hyperlink or any other object present, with success. The procedure described go in my case i have not responsibility if you try and you lose personal data.