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dolphin package

Cannot open MS Excel file directly from USB in MS Excel

Asked by Marius Groenewald

I installed MS Office through Wine on my Kubuntu PC. I tried to open an Excel file, stored on my USB Flashdrive, using the right-click menu, Open With option. I selected MS Excel, after which MS Excel loads, but with an empty Book1 file and not the file I selected in Dolphin.

The same happens even in Konqueror.

If I open an Excel file stored on my hard drive, then it works.

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This question was originally filed as bug #191363.

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TerryG (tgalati4) said : 		#1

Marking incomplete pending more info. Can you move files from your hard drive onto you USB flash using Dolphin/Konquerer? If you don't have write permission on the USB flash, then it's possible for this behavior. I presume your USB drive is formatted as FAT or FAT32?, not sure how WINE handles non-FAT filesystems.

This is definitely an edge case--using MS Office through WINE. Can you open the file with Open Office from the USB disk?

At least you have a work-around--write the file to local disk then open it in Excel. Could be a WINE issue with handling of USB disks. Could be an MS Office/WINE issue with file handling.

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Marius Groenewald (groenem) said : 		#2

Yes, I can move files from my hard drive onto my USB flash using Dolphin/Konquerer.
My USB is formatted as FAT.
Yes, I can open the .xls file with OpenOffice directly from the USB.

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TerryG (tgalati4) said : 		#3

Thanks for your testing. Marking as Confirmed. Could be a simple as a Dolphin configuration. I run Gnome on most of my machines, I have KDE on a partition somewhere. If you right-click on the file and choose open with other application, then choose custom command:

What happens if you put a custom command that looks something like: (modify it to your environment)

wine exel.exe /media/myusbdevicethatisgivingmetrouble/myexelfile.xls

You can get device names using the command:

df -h

If this works, then you have a work around. If it doesn't then the Dolphin folks can figure out why usb mounted devices don't get the correct path sent to wine.

You can make launch icons on your desktop with this custom command if it's a file that you routinely edit.

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Marius Groenewald (groenem) said : 		#4

If I use the "wine exel.exe /media/myusbdevicethatisgivingmetrouble/myexelfile.xls" command, nothing happens. My mouse pointer changes to the Wine logo for a while, indicating that the PC is busy processing the request, but that's all.

Is this problem already escalated to the Dolphin guys or Wine guys, or must I report it to them separately?

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Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman) said : 		#5

You would need to be where exel.exe is for it to work.

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#6

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

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kirkmorris22 (damienoliver22) said : 		#7

In such case try to use following software http://www.excel.repairtoolbox.com must help you to recover excel files version starting with MS Excel 95