Microsoft KB Archive/163901

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Configuring Mac Internet Explorer to Open MS Excel Files

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, version 5.0
 * Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 for Macintosh

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SUMMARY
By default, when you type a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for a Microsoft Excel file or you click a hyperlink to a Microsoft Excel file, Microsoft Internet Explorer for the Macintosh saves the file to the local hard disk and Microsoft Excel is not started.

This article explains how to change this behavior so that Microsoft Excel is started and the file is opened.

NOTE: Currently, it is not possible to open Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh within Internet Explorer. When you start Microsoft Excel, it appears in its own window.

MORE INFORMATION
To start Microsoft Excel when you type a URL for a Microsoft Excel file or when you click a hyperlink to a Microsoft Excel file, use the following steps:

 Start Internet Explorer. On the Edit menu, click Preferences. Click the Helpers tab, scroll down the list of Helpers to the item that refers to Microsoft Excel. Click the item and click Edit.

NOTE: The item name varies from computer to computer but is usually similar to "Excel Workspace" or Excel Macro.  In the Configure File Type dialog box, type the following settings.      Setting                         Value -

Description                    Any text string you want. Use descriptive text, for example, "Excel                                     Files" (without the quotation marks).

MIME Type                      Application/Excel

Suffixes                       ".xls" (without the quotation marks). Add as many suffixes you want.

Encoding                       "Binary" (without the quotation                                      marks)

How to Handle                  "Use a Helper Application" Click this in the "How to Handle" list.

Helper Application             Location for Microsoft Excel. Click Choose, select the Microsoft Excel program, and then click Select.

File Type                      "XLS5" (without the quotation marks                                      and in uppercase)  Click OK. Click OK to close the Preferences dialog box.