Using Excel add-ins with skydrive

13. November 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized
Hi - I have bought a new laptop with windows 8 (now 8.1) and office 2013. I use excel extensively and in particular I make use of user-defined functions created in VBA and stored as .xla files. I'm experimenting with SkyDrive to provide all my backup and placed all my files in a folder-file structure under the Skydrive/Documents folder. So far, so good. However, when I open a spreadsheet that uses a user-defined function I get a message saying that "we can't connect to 'https//d.docs.live.net/programs/addins/filename.xla'", where filename.xla is the name of the file containing the VBA code to perform the user-define function. The xla file is actually stored in a C:\programs\addins folder and that is where it is registered (if that's the correct word) when I originally activated the add-in (under Developer|Add-ins menu).

It seems therefore that when I think I'm opening a file on my computer I'm actually opening a copy that's contained somewhere in the cloud and excel (despite being told where the xla file is) is looking for the file in the cloud, rather than on my laptop hard drive. I've tried putting a copy of the file "in the cloud" in folder skydrive/documents/programs/addins/, but this doesn't resolve the problem.

So far the only fix I've found is to re-activate the add-in using the Data/edit links option and re-point excel back to the correct location for the xla file. However, this is not a viable solution for the long term.

This doesn't happen with Dropbox, which suggests that they work in very different ways? Can anyone offer a solution please? This looks like a deal breaker for me and I may have to consider switching to Dropbox.

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